Heroes of Tomorrow
by Canoe98
Summary: There use to be peace between the four nations, but now there is only chaos. Because of the attack by the fire nation, the balance of power has shifted, causing the spiritual world to be thrown into a state of chaos. The only one who can restore order back to the world is the avatar but even he may not be able to do it alone. The spirits seek the aid of heroes from other worlds.
1. Chapter 1: Help from another world

**Chapter 1: Help from another world**

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar the Last Airbender nor do I own My Hero Academia. I just like the two franchises and thought that it would be a fun little idea to have the characters from both universes interact. Thank you and Enjoy!

Once, in a time long past, the four nations lived together in harmony, but that soon changed when the fire nation attacked. This attack caused order to be replaced by chaos, and peace to be replaced by fear. The only one who was able to restore balance to the world was the avatar, master of all four elements - water, earth, fire, and air. But even as the avatar began his quest, the spirits of past avatars thought it necessary to send heroes from other worlds to help aid the avatar. And so, the spirits decided to look for warriors who were worthy enough to help the avatar restore balance to the world.

Izuku Midoriya yawned as he slowly awoke to the brightness of the morning sun that effortlessly shinned through the curtains. He sat up in his bed and stretched, raising his arms high above his head. He smacked his lips and groaned as he got up and walked to the bathroom. The morning was just like any other morning he had - it was simply routine. He got dressed, ate breakfast, brushed his teeth, and headed out the door. Izuku was just like any other kid his age; he liked to play with his friends, loved video games, and had super powers. Actually, having superpowers wasn't that uncommon; in fact more that 80% of people in the world had superpowers - or a "quirk" as it's generally called.

Izuku even went to a school that taught kids like him how to properly Control and use their quirks for good, in fact that's where he was headed. Once he got to school, he sat through his classes (board out of his mind as usual), then quickly headed to practice. Practice was held in a large room that was meant for students to work on their skills and perfect their quirks. As Izuku walked into the room, he was soon encountered by two of his classmates - Katsuki Bakugo and Shouto Todoroki.

"Hey! Midoriya! The teacher said that I need to spar someone, so I want you to fight me!" Katsuki yelled as he stomped over to Izuku. "As do I." Shouto stated.

"Huh?" Izuku asked, genuinely confused, "Why me?" Katsuki let out a low growl, "Because everyone else here is too scared to face me, except for this guy", he continued as he pointed to Shouto, who shrugged, "and even he refuses to give it his all!" Shouto sighed, "Why would I fight you with my all if it's just for practice?" This prompted Katsuki to turn to him, "Screw you!", he yelled. Izuku began to laugh nervously as he watched the two teenage heroes argue. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a bright blue light appeared in the middle of the practice room, causing everyone to stop what they were doing and look at it.

The blue light then began to shape itself into an orb that silently drifted over to the three heroes and stopped directly in front of them. Izuku continued to stare at it as the light within the orb got brighter and brighter, then there was a flash and everything in the room was covered with the light. After a couple seconds, the light died down, revealing three missing teenage heroes. Izuku Midoriya, Shouto Todoroki, and Katsuki Bakugo were all gone.

The last thing they saw was light as it was immediately replaced by darkness. The three teens looked around, finding themselves in a small candle-lit room. Suddenly they heard a voice behind them, "Please, be calm. I understand your confusion, but there is no cause for alarm." All three of them turned to find an old-looking man sitting on the floor behind them with his legs neatly crossed. "Have a seat, please." The man calmly instructed. "W-who are you?", Izuku asked, being the first one to speak. The man gently smiled and gave a slight bow. "I am the one who brought you all here."

Katsuki gritted his teeth as he angrily began to approach the man, "Are you telling me this is all your doing?! What the hell do you want?!" The man maintained a calm demeanor as he slowly replied to the young man's hotheaded question, "Do not worry, all will soon be revealed." He said as he gestured to the ground in front of him, "If you will simply take a seat, I shall tell you everything." The teenagers looked at each other before they carefully sat down on the floor in front of the old man. Izuku kept his eyes on the figure before him, trying to decide whether or not he posed a threat.

Once all three of them were seated, the old man began to speak, "Once, in a time long past, there lived four nations that lived together in harmony - the fire nation, the earth nation, the water tribe, and the air nomads. Each of these nations had ancient forms of martial arts called 'bending' that allowed certain users to control the element of their respective nation. There was peace that existed between these nations, but that soon changed when the fire nation desired more power over the other nations. The fire nation decided to attack its fellow benders and throw the political and spiritual force out of balance. The only one who was able to restore balance to the world was the avatar, master of all four elements - water, earth, fire, and air. But now I fear that even he cannot do it alone. That is the reason I brought you all here - I hereby humbly ask of you to aid the avatar in bringing peace to this world."

Izuku stared at the man with a shocked and somewhat confused expression as he tried to piece together what he just heard. There was silence that hung in the air for what seemed like minutes before Shouto was the one who broke it, "So, in summarization, you require our assistance to help this 'avatar' restore balance to the world?" The old man hung his head in an almost ashamed manner, "Yes. Please forgive me, for I know how difficult it is to trust a man whom you've just met. But the fact still remains that this world needs your help. I will not force you to comply, I simply want you to understand." Izuku was slightly taken aback by the old man's humility; in a certain way, it reminded him of All Might.

"Hell NO!" Yelled Katsuki as he practically jumped up from his spot, "There is no way in hell i'm going on some bullshit quest!" He quickly got up and walked off. "Hey! Where are you going?!" Asked Izuku. "Where the hell do you think, genius?! HOME!", replied Katsuki as he reached for a nearby door. He quickly opened it and looked out. His face froze at what he saw; they were in space (or something like it). He saw giant planets situated in various locations with a few asteroids slowly floating around. Beyond the planets (and in fact everything else) there was a sea of stars that beautifully painted the distant cosmos. Katsuki was soon joined by Izuku and Shouto as the three of them stared out in wonder.

Noticing their confusion, the old man began to explain, "Do not fear. It is not real; merely an illusion designed so that those who aren't spirits can perceive a physical environment." Shouto turned to look at the man, still awestruck by what he had just seen, "If that's not real, then where are we?" The old man cracked a small smile, "You are in the spirit world." It was Izuku's turn next as he faced the man, "So then…..who are you?" The old man bowed his head again, "My name is avatar Roku. It is a pleasure to meet you all."

End of Chapter 1

 **Author's note: It has been soooooooooooo long since I last uploaded anything, and y'know what? - it feels great. I basically started writing this story just after I had finished watching the latest episode of My Hero Academia and a few past episodes of avatar. I honestly first only wanted Shouto to meet Zuko because the two are just so similar (I even think that Shouto was kind of based on Zuko or something. Well, whatever!) Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter and I will try my best to upload more. Thanks and Peace!**


	2. Chapter 2: What are Heroes For?

**Chapter 2: What are heroes for?**

The three heroes simply looked at the old man with their mouths slightly ajar, "Wait a minute, so you're the avatar?" Asked Izuku. "Well, 'yes' and 'no'", Avatar Roku replied, "You see, the avatar is basically whoever can control all four elements, however when an avatar dies, his spirit is cycled through to other human vessels. At one point I did use to be the avatar, but i'm not anymore. Currently, there is a young air bender named 'Aang' who is attempting to master all four elements. But time is running out and he needs help; that's why I brought you all here."

Izuku stood and listened to the old avatar speak before a sad expression slowly began to plaster his face. He honestly wanted to help. If there was anything he could do to save this world, he would do it in a heartbeat. "I'll do it.", Izuku said as the sad expression was replaced by the face of determination. "What the Hell, Midoriya?!", screamed Katsuki, "Are you actually considering thi -" his protest was soon interrupted by Izuku's voice, "Isn't this exactly what heroes are for?! This is why I became a hero in the first place - so that I could save those who couldn't save themselves!" Katsuki wanted to say something back, but he couldn't because deep down he knew Izuku was right. "I agree.", stated Shouto as he walked over to Izuku, "What sort of heroes would we be if we ran from this. At the academy, we were prepared for the chance to prove ourselves as true heroes."

Katsuki lowered his head and tightly shut his eyes as a rough growl escaped his mouth. "Goddamnit! FINE! But if this turns out to be a waste of time, I want a guarantee that we can leave freely and go back home if we want!", he said as he pointed to Roku, who simply nodded in response. Katsuki let out a sigh, "So where do we even start?" All three heroes looked at the white-bearded man who sat back down on the floor. "Your quest is to help the avatar battle the fire nation's forces. To do this, you must first locate him and his group of friends and get them to trust you. The avatar is young bald boy with blue arrow tattoos all along his body. He is accompanied by a female waterbender with long brown hair and her brother, who is a slightly older looking boy with a boomerang. Their group is finished by a blind female earth bender, a flying bison, and a lemur-like animal. From there you will simply help him fight as much as you can."

All three teenagers nodded (even though they have never heard of a 'flying bison'.)as Avatar Roku outstretched his arm, "I will transport you as close to Aang and his group as I possibly can, but after that, you all must do your best to find them." With that behind said, the ground beneath the three heroes began to glow. Katsuki scratched the back of his head and groaned, "Man, this blows!" Shouto slightly bowed to Roku, "I'll shall do this to the best of my abilities." And Izuku quickly nodded, "We'll do our best!" Avatar Roku smiled at them, The glow then engulfed the three boys in a bright light as they quickly disappeared. "Thank you, and Good luck." Said Roku, "It's all up to you now."

Just like last time, all the three heroes could see was a bright light before it was suddenly replaced by the view of tall trees and rocks that surrounded them. They looked around and noticed that they were placed right smack dab in the middle of a forest. "Ohhhh, Perfect!", yelled Katsuki, "I thought he was gunna send us to 'the avatar' not put our asses in a place like this!"

"All he said was that he would put us CLOSE to the avatar. The rest is suppose to be up to us…..weren't you listening?", Shouto stated as he looked around the surrounding environment. "Wait a minute…", Izuku began, "do we have different clothes on?" He looked down at himself and noticed that his outfit had changed. The other two also looked down to see that their other clothes had been replaced with something entirely different.

Izuku wore dark brown baggy pants that were tucked neatly into some light brown boots made of fur. He had on a long-sleeved black jacket that fully covered his upper body.

Shouto wore dark green pants that stopped just below the knee. His upper body was covered with a sleeveless black shirt that loosely hung down by his sides.

Katsuki wore something similar to Shouto except he wore a dark grey T-shirt that tightly hugged his waist.

Shouto looked up at the sky and noticed that the sun was beginning to set. "We should probably find a place where we can sleep for the night and get started in the morning." Izuku nodded in agreement, "Right, so we need to - " Izuku stopped mid-sentence as he spotted something in the sky. The other two picked up on this and turned to see what he was looking at. In the distance, a shadow of some kind of animal appeared in the sky. It wasn't a bird, its body shape didn't match. The figure began to grow as it got closer to the group of heroes. "The hell? Is that a…..bison?!", asked Katsuki. "It appears so.", replied Shouto, "It must be the avatar, remember what Roku told us?" Katsuki kept his eyes on the bison as it got closer, "Seriously?! I honestly thought that he was joking!"

The bison began to slow down as it descended down onto the ground a couple hundred yards from the group. "C'mon guys.", whispered Izuku as he began to sneak to where the bison had landed. The heroes soon came to where the bison had was, and they quickly hid behind a rock. They peered over to an open area where the bison was on the ground surrounded by about four people. Izuku soon noticed that one of the people appeared to be bald and had a light blue tattoo that covered the middle part of his head. "That must be the avatar", whispered Izuku as both Shouto and Katsuki nodded in agreement.

"Appa's shedding.", stated a tan boy with a ponytail, "Ohhh! Gross", replied a girl with similar skin color to the boy. Then the avatar began to speak, "It's not gross, it's just spring. Y'know - rebirth, flowers blooming and Appa gets a new fur coat." "Ahhh! The 'beauty' of spring'", the girl sarcastically replied. The bison then sneezed which caused a storm of hair to gently drift onto the dark-skinned girl who began to cough while trying to get it all off of her. "No, stop! *cough* Appa stop! *cough*" Then the dark-skinned boy grabbed a bundle of hair and placed it on his head, "It's not that bad Katara", he said as he whirled around, "It makes a great wig!" "And a great beard!", stated the avatar as he joined in the other boy's antics.

The girl simply stared at the two and sighed, "I'm just glad that we have another girl in the group because you two are disgusting!" Suddenly a girl, somewhat shorter than the others, appeared between the two boys, "Excuse me, does anyone have a razor?", she said before she lifted her arms up revealing clumps of the bison's fur placed in her armpits, "'Caus I got some hairy pits." The other two boys looked at her then all three of them busted out laughing.

"Hmmmmm. They all seem to be very close.", stated Shouto as he continued to watch the group. "Yeah, NOW! But how do they all function in a fight?", replied Katsuki as he tried his best to keep his voice down. Suddenly the short girl in the group turned to face the direction of the three teens, "Hey! There are some people hiding behind that rock over there!", she said as she pointed to the somewhat large rock. "Crap!", Izuku began, "Our cover's been blown!" The other three (including the avatar) looked to where the girl was pointing, and they all prepared to attack. "Are they fire nation?", asked the dark-skinned girl.

Izuku cursed under his breath as he quickly stood up from behind the boulder and started to walk into view. "We mean you no harm.", he said in an effort to calm them down, "We were sent here to find you by someone who wants to help you. We don't want to fight; we just want to help." The avatar's group looked at each other skeptically before the dark-skinned boy began to speak, "Sorry, not buying it!" With that, the rest of them initiated their attack. The shortest girl sent a barrage of rocks flying at Izuku while the avatar and the dark-skinned girl threw a pillar of water at him which was followed up by a lone boomerang.

Izuku quickly lifted up his hand and situated his fingers into a flicking position. As the attacks got closer, he released his fingers, causing a sudden rush of wind to spiral forth and intercept each of the opponent's attacks. The rocks that had been thrown by the short girl quickly broke apart and were sent in various directions. The water that was sent by the avatar and the other girl was simply blown back by the sheer force of the wind that had also stopped the motion of the boomerang as well. Once the wind died down, the avatar and his group stared at Izuku with shock written on all of their faces.

"H-how did you - a-are you an air b-bender?", questioned the little bald boy. "Well, no. But I am someone who came here to help. Me and my friends have traveled here by the request of someone who wants you to succeed, Aang." The bald boy simply blinked at this, "How do you know my name? And who's the one who sent you here." Izuku slightly chuckled and scratched the back of his head, "Actually, the answer to both questions is the same answer. We were sent here by a man (or spirit) who calls himself 'Avatar Roku'."

End of chapter 2

 **Author's note: Booom! Another chapter done! Man, I am on a roll right now. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Please comment so that I can see if you liked the story - maybe even suggest what I could do for future chapters (at the moment i'm blank) Thanks and Peace! :)**


	3. Chapter 3: Being chased

**Chapter 3: Being chased**

"Wait a minute, what do you mean? Are you saying that Avatar Roku was the one who sent you here?", asked Aang. Izuku nodded and continued to speak, "He thought it would be best if he sent you all the help he could muster, and eventually he picked me and my friends." The dark-skinned boy raised his eyebrow to this, "'Friends?'", asked as he continued to look at Izuku. Izuku nodded again and turned slightly to face the boulder behind him, "Alright guys, you can come out now!" "Uhhhhggg! Finally! I thought you were never gunna stop talking!", yelled a voice as a boy with spiky ash blonde hair emerged from behind the boulder. He was followed by boy with white hair on the right side of his face and red hair on the left side of his face.

The boy also appeared to have a burn mark on the left side of his face. The avatar along with most of his group suddenly started to glare at the boy, "Zuko!", they all shouted in unison as the light-skinned girl launched a spiral of water at the boy. The boy did not move as the watery attack continued to close the distance. Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, a wall of ice appeared and surrounded the boy, effectively blocking the attack. The avatar's group stood there, stunned by what they had just seen. "What the- Ice?!", the brown haired girl exclaimed, "He can't be Zuko! This guy is a waterbender! But there wasn't even any water around. How did he do that?!"

"Hey!", yelled Katsuki, "Is this how you treat people who are trying to help?!" The female water bender looked down, "N-no. Of course not, we're terribly sorry!" As the ice began to slowly dissipate, Shouto walked forward and gave a slight bow, "There is no need to apologize. I am perfectly fine. Perhaps it would have been better if we introduced ourselves first. My name is Shouto Todoroki." Izuku then smiled and turned to Aang's group, "My name is Izuku Midoriya." Izuku then looked at Katsuki before nudging him in the shoulder. "Fine, stop touching me!", yelled the spiky haired hothead, "*sigh* I'm Katsuki Bakugo and don't any of you ever forget it!"

"Cool!", exclaimed the little bald boy, "My name is Aang and i'm the avatar, even though you already knew that." "My name is Katara", began the brown-haired waterbender, "and the weird one next to me is my brother - Sokka." "Oh come on Katara, what the heck!", screamed Sokka. "And i'm Toph.", stated the black-haired girl, "i'm the best earthbender who ever lived."

Izuku smiled at the now acquainted group, "So...are all of you guys benders?" "Well, not all of us.", said Toph as she gestured to Sokka, "Mrs. Ponytail back there is stuck with that hunk of wood." Sokka growled at Toph, "It's called a BOOMERANG!" The rest of the group started to laugh and even Izuku chuckled a bit. "The sun is going down.", stated Katara as she looked up at the sky, "we should unload here and rest for the night." The rest of the group all nodded in agreement as they all began to walk back to their bison.

"Hey, do you guys have any place to sleep for the night?", asked Aang as he unloaded some sleeping bags. "Izuku shook his head in response, "No. We were just sent here a few minutes ago by Roku, so we don't have any gear with us." Aang smiled at them, "Well, if you want, you could sleep with us. I think we've got a few extra sleeping bags." Izuku looked back at his two companions, looking for approval before finally responded, "We would be very grateful for that." Aang's smile grew bigger, "No problem. It's how I was raised anyway."

Aang felt a hand on his shoulder and looked to see Sokka about to whisper something to him. "Are you sure we can trust these guys. I mean, they WERE spying on us before." Aang whispered back to Sokka, "Well, they knew who master Roku was, so that must mean that they're telling the truth. Nobody else would know about the spirit world, let alone knowing who avatar Roku is." Sokka simply looked down at Aang and shrugged, "Fair enough, I guess." With that being said, the two groups prepared their sleeping bags and went to sleep.

 **A few hours later…**

Izuku was awoken the sound of someone yelling, "There's something coming toward us!" He lifted his head and saw Toph running to the group. "Huh? What is it?", he lazily asked. "It feels like an avalanche…, but also NOT an avalanche." Katsuki slowly approached the young earth bender, "Your powers of perception are frightening.", he stated as he sleepily rubbed his eyes. "Should we leave?", asked Aang as he looked at Izuku, to which the latter responded, "Better safe than sorry."

"We need to pack our stuff and leave on Appa.", suggested Sokka. "Agreed.", stated Shouto who was wondering how Toph could detect something so far away. "Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait!", interjected Katsuki, "You want me to get on THAT?!", he said pointing at Appa. "Well, yeah. Why? You scared?", said Toph in a mocking voice. Katsuki growled at the young earthbender, who simply grinned in response. "Let's go, guys", said Izuku, grabbing his sleeping bag. The two groups quickly loaded their gear and took off.

"Why don't we just fight whatever it is?!", yelled Katsuki, who was obviously annoyed. "We'll only fight when we need to.", said Izuku, "for now, we should just avoid confrontation." Katsuki begrudgingly crosses his arms and looked out over the tees, mumbling to himself. "Izuku's right.", added Aang, "We should only confront them, if all else fails." "Yeah, and we don't even know who or what it is.", said Katara.

The ride itself seemed to last for hours as the two groups tried to get some shut-eye. Finally, they spotted a clearing in the mountains that looked perfect for a place to set up camp. Once Appa landed, everyone jumped down onto the ground and embraced the fact that there was solid land to stand on. Toph seemed the most grateful as she slid off the side of the bison's back, "Ohhh, yeah. Land, sweet land. Well, see you guys in the morning!"

"Hold on, Toph.", said Katara, stopping Toph from walking away, "We might need some help unloading a few things…" Toph stopped and slightly turned to face Katara, "Really?!", she asked, almost astonished, "You need ME to help unload Sokka's funky smelling sleeping bag?" Sokka sniffed his bag and was taken aback by its scent as Katara slowly began to walk towards Toph, "Well, yeah. That and everything else. Look, you're a part of this team now and -" Katara was cut off by Toph's finger in her face.

"Look, I didn't ask you to help unload my stuff. I carry my own weight." Katara narrowed her eyes at the earthbender, "That's not the point. Ever since you joined us, you've been nothing but selfish and unhelpful." "What?!", screamed Toph as she pointed another finger at Katara, "Look here, sugar queen, I gave up everything I had so that I could teach Aang earthbending, so don't you talk to me about being 'selfish'." With that, Toph sat down conjured up two rectangular slabs of earth to resemble the shape of a tent. "Sugar queen?!", repeated Katara.

Then one final piece of earth zoomed into place to block Toph from Katara's view. "Di-did you just slam the door in my face? How can you be so infuriating?", Katara screamed as she banged on the pieces of rock with her fists. The five boys simply watched the spectacle as it unfolded before them. "Should we do something?", asked Izuku as he watched the enraged waterbender. "Hey, i'm just enjoying the show.", replied Sokka.

A few minutes later, everyone had unloaded their gear and were prepared to go to sleep. And they would have gone to sleep if it weren't for Katara and Toph's late-night bickering. "The stars sure are beautiful", stated Katara as Sokka and Katsuki both tried to drown out the noise with their covers, "too bad you can't see them, Toph." The earthbender's reply to that was to earthbend Katara into the air to land on Sokka.

"Hey, how's a guy suppose to sleep with all this yelling and earthquaking?!", Sokka screamed as he pushed Katara off of him.

Toph finally emerged from her rock-like tent, "That thing is back!", she said as she planted her palm on the ground. "Well how far away is it?!", asked Katsuki, hoping for a good answer. "Yeah", agreed Sokka, "because maybe we can close our eyes just for a few minutes." Shouto turned and looked to see smoke coming from an unseen source beyond the trees, "I don't believe that is possible.", he said as everyone began packing their things on Appa.

The group got on Appa again and flew away off into the distance.

End of chapter 3

 **Author's note: Wow! A third chapter….in all honesty, im impressed with myself. I literally wrote the first three chapters in like one day. Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter along with the other ones of course, and I will try my best to continue uploading. In case you guys were wondering, im using the (somewhat) OP version of Izuku in this story, which is why he didn't break anything when he used his quirk. Basically this is the version of Izuku who can fully control his powers. I will also try to dive deeper into the personalities of Katsuki and Shouto in later chapters. Please comment. Thanks and Peace! :)**


	4. Chapter 4: The fire princess

**Chapter 4 - The fire princess**

Everyone was struggling to keep their eyes open as Appa flew majestically through the sky. Aang tried his best to stay awake as he held the bison's reigns. Sokka and Katsuki looked as if they were going to pass out in a few minutes, and Toph was already half unconscious. In an effort to keep everyone awake, Aang decided it would be best to try and start up a conversation. "So, if you guys aren't benders," he began as he looked over his shoulder, "then how are you able to control the elements so well?" Izuku tried to think of a way to explain it, before he was beat to it by Shouto, "We have what's called a 'quirk', which is basically a power that is unique to each and every person."

"More than 80% of the people in our world have quirks and usually these people become heroes." At this point, Toph had seemed to slightly awaken as she quickly asked, "So, then what are your quirks?" Izuku was the first one to speak, "Well, my quirk basically grants my body a great deal of physical strength," he said while he looked at Toph. "How were you able to summon the wind that blasted away all of our attacks from before?," asked Katara. Izuku gave a shy smile before he spoke, "Well, since my strength is greatly enhanced, many of my physical movements are greatly exaggerated. When I saw all of your attacks coming, I simply flicked my finger at you with enough force and speed to effectively generate enough wind to dispel your attacks from hitting me." Sokka looked at Izuku open-mouthed, "So...what you're saying is that you just flicked hard enough to cancel out our attacks?!" Izuku nodded. "That's amazing!," Katara exclaimed, causing Izuku to slightly blush.

Toph then looked over at Shouto who was quietly examining the sky, "So what about you?," she asked, prompting him to slowly look back, "What's your quirk?" Shouto remained quiet for a few more seconds before answering her question, "With my quirk, I am able actively control ice and any of its features." Toph gave him an unimpressed look, "So, basically….you're a water bender who can only control ice?" Shouto gave a slight nod before returning to gazing at the night sky.

Sokka turned his attention to the ash blonde boy sitting beside him, "How about you? What can you do? - wait! Don't tell me, I can guess! You can talk to animals!"

"No," replied Katsuki.

"You can make acid come out of your eyes!," Sokka said with an interested face.

"Not even close!," said Katsuki again.

"You can summon unicorns from the sky!," exclaimed Sokka as his eyes twinkled.

"What? No! Are you high or something?," asked the blonde hero.

"My quirk basically gives me the ability to cause spontaneous combustion," Katsuki said as he let out a loud yawn. Sokka stopped and put a finger to his chin, "Isn't that what fire bending is?" Katsuki roughly grunted after hearing what Sokka said, "What?! Hell No! My quirk is better than any mere fire bender's power!" Sokka simply smiled in a teasing manner, "Is that why you were still hiding behind that rock from before?" Katsuki continued to yell as Sokka continued to tease him.

Izuku let out a nervous laugh as he watched the both guys go at it, "Well, it looks like those two are becoming good friends." Katara, Aang, and Toph all seemed to laugh at this while the two hotheads of the group kept bickering. Once Katara's laughing began to die down, she looked at Izuku, "So, you guys came from a different world, right?," she asked as Izuku eagerly nodded. "Aren't you at all scared by any of this? I mean, things must seem so different here." A serious expression soon covered Izuku's face, "well, sure it's different, but I wanna do as much as I can to help this world. That's what we were taught ,in our world at least," he then chuckled a little to himself, "after all…..what are heroes for?"

It took them hours, but they eventually found another place to camp. Once Appa landed, Katsuki jumped out as Sokka quickly followed behind. Both of them simply collapsed on the ground, allowing the dirt to cover their bodies. "Ok, you know what?," Aang said as he dismounted the bison, "Let's just forget about unloading our stuff." "Yeah," said Sokka, reaching for his sleeping bag, "We've put a lot of distance between us and them, now will everybody just...shhhhhhhhh." Suddenly a winged lemur, that the gang had come to know as 'Momo', landed on Sokka's chest as the latter tried desperately to get some sleep, "No, Momo. Shhhhhhhhhh, sleepy-time."

The lemur then flew up to show the group that something was headed towards them. "Oh no, don't tell me!," cried Sokka, digging his head into the ground. "You've gotta be kidding me!", screamed Katsuki as he stomped his foot on some nearby grass. "That's impossible!," stated Aang, "There's no way they could've tracked us." Izuku continued to stare at the object in the distance, "Maybe we should face them; figure out what they want," he suggested. "Yeah," agreed Aang, "Who knows, maybe they're friendly. "Always the optimist," sighed Sokka.

The seven teens then prepared to defend themselves as they kept their eyes on the approaching target. The object got closer, and the group could finally make out what it was. It appeared to be an odd train-shaped vehicle that stopped a couple hundred meters from their position. Then there was a hissing sound as a compartment began to open from the side of the vehicle, revealing three hidden figures emerge emerge from inside. Three girls, teenagers from the looks of it, were riding on large lizards that were about the size of horses (probably larger).

The girl on the left had dark hair that was cleanly cut just above her eyes. She wore almost all black besides a few elements of gray in the sleeves. Her eyes were cold and stiff, indicating a somewhat board deminor.

To the very right was a girl with light brown hair that had been braided all the way down. She wore pink pants that matched her pink top, in fact, almost everything she wore was pink. Her eyes were wide and she had kind of a happy, fun-loving smile on her face.

The girl in the middle, presumably the leader, had dark hair with long bangs that swayed to the sides of her face. She wore a red and grey uniform that most likely indicated her rank. The uniform was topped off with body armor that rested neatly on her shoulders.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, the three lizards began sprinting to the group. "Its those three girls from Omashu!," yelled Katara as she prepared her water. "We can take 'em; it's three on six," Toph said with conviction. "Well, actually Toph there's seven of us," corrected Izuku. "Oh," Toph said without batting an eye, "I didn't count Sokka; y'know - no bending and all…" "I can still fight!," screamed the water tribe boy, to which Toph said, "Ok….three on sixplusSokka," causing Sokka to let out a high-pitched growl.

The three girls got closer as Toph caused rock formations to erupt from the ground, to which the lizards simply climbed over. Shouto then appeared next to Toph, sending a barrage of ice shards at the three opponents. The girl in the middle raised her hands to the pieces of ice and released a wave of fire at them, causing each of them to melt.

"Finally!," yelled Katsuki, "A little action." "Wait!," shouted Izuku, causing Katsuki to stop and look at him, "We just wanted to see who they were, and we got our answer. Now let's get out of here!" The rest of the team seemed to agree as they all headed back to Appa.

Katsuki gritted his teeth as he continued to look at the oncoming attackers. "Katsuki, Hurry up!," he heard Izuku yell. Katsuki let out a grunt as he turned and headed back to the bison, "Dammit!" Appa began to take off once everyone was on and flew off, just nearly dodging a bolt of electricity that had been shot by one of the attackers.

About half an hour had passed since the group had encountered the trio of girls, and everyone was on the verge of collapsing right then and there. "I can't believe that those girls followed us all the way from Omashu," stated Katara. "Why did we run?!," said a pissed off Katsuki, causing Toph to interject, "Yeah, i'm still sure we could've taken them." "Are you kidding?," said an exhausted Katara, "The crazy blue fire bending and spikes are bad enough, but last time we fought, one of those girls did something that took my bending away…...that's scary!"

As the group continued to fly, the sun slowly came up from behind some nearby mountains. "Oh no! The sun is rising, we've been up all night will no sleep!," complained Sokka as he let his arm fall limp to his side. "Sokka, we'll be ok," replied a tired Aang. "Are you sure?," asked Sokka, "I've never NOT slept before! What if I go to sleep now and something happens? And something always happens!" "Every time we land those girls are there, so we should just keep flying," said Katara.

"We can't keep flying forever," stated Izuku.

End of Chapter 4

 **Author's note: Ok, fourth chapter finished. I didn't get as far as I wanted to in this chapter because I want to save a lot of the upcoming stuff for the next chapter. Hopefully in chapter five I will be able to talk more about these characters as individuals. Hope you guys enjoyed it! Thanks and Peace! :)**


	5. Chapter 5: Regrets

**Chapter 5: Regrets**

It was early morning as the group continued to roam the skies. "So, what's our plan?," Shouto asked as he let out a yawn. "Don't know; too tired to think," Toph replied with a hint of grogginess in her voice. The rest of the group was obviously tired to, as a few of them were leaning against each other. "I'm sure we'll think of something after a short nap," suggested Izuku, to which Sokka eagerly agreed, "Yes….sleep!"

As a few of the group's members began to doze off, there was a sudden change in the pace and direction of the wind. Izuku slowly opened his eyes from his nap to see that they weren't going forward anymore; in fact they seemed to be descending at a rapid pace. "What the hell is going on?!," shouted Katsuki, desperately grabbing onto the saddle. "Appa fell asleep!," informed Aang as the flying bison continued to fall.

Aang quickly climbed onto Appa's head and stopped right in front of the animal's face, "Wake up, buddy!," he shouted, trying to wake up the bison. Suddenly Appa's eyes shot open and, after noticing that the ground was rapidly approaching, returned right back to flying. But the flying beast seemed too tired to continue flying, so Aang decided that he needed to land Appa in a place where they could all rest.

The group held on tight to the bison as it careened down back to the surface, flying through tall trees and thick branches. Eventually, the gang landed, well more like crash-landed into a grassy open area, causing Appa to carve a long gash in the ground. Aang sighed as he gently slid off the side of the now sleeping beast, "Appa's exhausted," he stated as he gave the animal a comforting pat.

"It seems that we were able to put considerable distance between us and the enemy. Perhaps we should attempt to come up with a plan in case of a future confrontation," suggested Shouto as he hopped off of the saddle. "But i'm still sooooo tired!" Whined Sokka, touching the bags under his eyes. "Well, of course we would have gotten some sleep earlier if Toph didn't have such issues," Katara said, prompting an irritated reply from Toph, "WHAT!?"

"OK, OK. Were all tired. Let's just try to calm down," Izuku said as he nervously watched the argument unfold. "No!" Began Toph, stomping her foot on the ground, "I want to hear what Katara has to say. You think I have 'issues'?" Izuku let out a quiet sigh, knowing that his plea to peace had been ignored. "I'm just saying that maybe if you helped us unload before, we could've set up camp earlier and got some sleep. AND THEN MAYBE WE WOULDN'T BE IN THIS SITUATION!", Katara screamed with bloodshot eyes.

The rest of the group continued to stare as the two benders argued, "You're blaming me for all of this?" Questioned a now irate Toph. She began to storm over to an equally agitated Katara, who was moving her hands in a beckoning motion. "N-no. No. She's not blaming you!" Aang said as he moved in between them to intercept Toph's blind rush to the female water bender. "No, i'm blaming her!" Retaliated Katara. To this, Toph promptly shoved Aang out of the way as if he was a piece of paper and gave Katara an angry glare, "Hey, I never asked you for diddly-doo-dah! I carry my own weight. Besides, if there's anyone to blame - it's 'sheddy' over here!" She said as she pointed at Appa.

"What?" Asked Aang in a slightly annoyed tone, "You're blaming Appa?!" "Yeah! You wanna know how they keep finding us? He's leaving a trail everywhere we go!" Toph walked over to the bison and took ahold of Appa's fur coat, revealing clumps of white hair. "How dare you blame Appa, he saved your life like three times today," stated an angry Aang, "If there's anyone to blame it's YOU! You always talk about 'carrying your own weight' but you're not! HE is! - Appa's carrying your weight! And before these guys came along, he never had problem flying when it was just the three of us!"

Throughout Aang's speech, Toph held an uninterested and bored expression on her face as if she simply was waiting for him to finish. Once Aang's angry rant had ended, Toph simply grabbed her stuff and began to walk away. "I'm outa here," she said before she noticed Sokka had blocked her path with his body. "Wait," he said as Toph simply earth blended him to the side, earning a slight gasp from the water tribe boy, and continued walking. The rest of the group simply watched her leave as she headed into the forest.

Izuku grew concerned as he watched the young earth bender leave before gathering the other two heroes into a meeting of sorts. "Guys we can't just let her walk away, can we? I mean, sure we came here to help the avatar, but from what Roku said, he might need all the help he can get," Izuku whispered to the other teens. "Izuku is correct," began Shouto as he swiftly looked at Katsuki, "Toph is likely the most powerful member of their team right now. I she were to leave, it would greatly affect the avatar's chances of completing his goal." Katsuki listened to his teammates before he began to speak himself, "Yeah, she's powerful, no doubt about that. But from what we just saw, she probably wouldn't wanna join with them again anytime soon!"

Shouto placed his hand on his chin, trying to think of how they could somehow alter their current situation. "Perhaps we could talk to her," he finally suggested. Both Izuku and Katsuki looked at the multi-hair colored hero, causing Shouto to immediately regret his idea. "That's a great idea, Shouto!" Shouted a smiling Izuku (more like a shout/ whisper), "you should go talk to her and convince her to rejoin the group!"

Shouto gave Izuku a blank stare before he sighed, knowing that there was no use in arguing. The three teens finally split apart, with Izuku and Katsuki returning back to Aang and the others, and Shouto following Toph.

Izuku and Katsuki began to hear Aang's child-like rant as they approached the group. "What did I just do?!" Aang screamed as he sat down on the grass, "I can't believe I yelled at my earth bending teacher." Izuku sadly looked at Aang before switching his attention to Katara who, just as ashamedly, said, "I know. We're just getting use to being around each other. And I was so mean to her…."

"Yeah you two were pretty much jerks." Stated Sokka, earning a snicker from Katsuki. "Thanks, Sokka," Katara sarcastically said, to which Sokka replied, "No problem," as he took a sip of tea. Izuku continued to watch the depressed faces of everyone in the group, wondering if there was anything he could do. Suddenly, a spark ignited in his brain and he walked over to Aang who hung his head in silence. "Hey, Aang," Izuku began as he looked at the air bender, "I think I have an idea."

Aang sniffed a bit and whipped his nose with the back of his hand, "What is it?" He asked, genuinely curious. "I think Toph might have been right about Appa," Izuku said as he looked at the avatar's confused face, "Appa's shedding might be leaving a trail of fur that can be used to track us, no matter where we go." Aang stood up and looked Izuku in the eye, "So what do you suggest we do? Give him a bath or something?" A wide smile spread on Izuku's face, which caused Aang to smile back at the sudden realization of his companion's plan.

A few minutes later, Aang and Katara were bending spurts of water at the bison's coat to get rid of any loose fur. Izuku, Sokka, and Katsuki were busy manually scrubbing Appa's back fur that would constantly clump up into bundles of fur that would get stuck in their brushes. Katsuki was complaining all the way through, mumbling to himself nonstop.

Finally, after about 5 minutes of washing and scrubbing, the gang dried the water off of Appa and removed any strands of fur that might not have been completely washed off during the bath.

"Ok. Those girls will follow the fur no matter where it goes to get to us, right?" Aang said as he held up a bag full of Appa's hair. "Yeah, so?" Questioned Katsuki as he folded his arms. "Well, I think I have an idea to get them off our backs. I'll take this bag full of Appa's fur and lead those girls away while you guys escape." Izuku gave a very concerned look as he stared at Aang, "Are you sure? If those girls follow you, you might not be able to fight them all yourself. You need someone to go with you." Aang slowly frowned as if he was deep in thought. "But who can come with me? I don't think anyone else here can fly," he finally said as he gestured to his glider.

"I can," said Katsuki as he took a step foreword. "Katsuki…" said Izuku with a hint of admiration in his voice. "What?!" Yelled Katsuki, turning to face his fellow team member, "You said it yourself already - 'What are heroes for?!" Izuku simply stared at Katsuki for a few seconds before he gave a slight nod. "Alright, let's go!" Yelled Katsuki, causing Aang to jump slightly. The bald airbender then opened his glider and took off into the sky. Katsuki was about to follow him when he heard Izuku say something to him - "Don't die." Katsuki let out a light chuckle before he whispered, "Dumbass. Like that would ever happen."

Katsuki then aimed his arm down to the ground and suddenly a small explosion condensed beneath his hand, causing his body to launch high into the air. Once he was high enough, he positioned his arms behind him and propelled himself forward in pursuit of Aang. He kept this up until he and Aang were both out of sight. Katara and Sokka both stared open mouthed at the spectacle they had just seen. "Wow," Sokka finally said, breaking the silence, "that guy is full of surprises."

With that being said, Izuku, Sokka, and Katara all left as Appa slowly began to take off. On their way up, Appa hit the top of some trees but continued to fly upward.

 **Meanwhile...**

Toph walked quietly down a winding dirt road, still thinking about what had happened a few minutes ago. She just left her friends, or at least the only people who she was ever close enough with to be called her friends. But who needs them? She can take care of herself; she didn't need anyone's help. She sighed and kicked a nearby rock as it effortlessly bounced to the side of the road. Suddenly she felt something, as if there was someone watching her, "Who's there?" She asked, scanning her surroundings. "Come on out!" She shouted as she struck her earth bending pose.

"Calm down," a voice said as a boy walked out from behind the trees, "It's just me."

Toph lowered her arms and resumed a normal standing position, "Oh, it's you," she finally said as Shouto walked up next to her. "What do you want?" She asked. Although there was no aggressive intent in her voice, Shouto detected a certain level of warning in her question. "I simply came here to talk," Shouto said without showing any signs of being intimidated. "About what?" Toph huffed as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"I understand how you must be feeling right now," Shouto began as Toph looked at him with unconvinced eyes, "You have most likely been alone your entire life. You have probably never even had friends your own age before, have you?" Understanding that the question was rhetorical, Toph remained silent as Shouto continued on with what he was going to say.

"You've always been a loner; you've always been thinking that you can take care of yourself." Toph began to speak up, thinking that he was mocking her, "That's because I CAN take care of myself. I've always been good at that. And just because you got a few things right about me doesn't mean that you know me, so stop thinking as if you know what my life if like. You don't know what it's like to be isolated from others! You don't know what it's like when the people who were suppose to raise you treat you differently than everyone else! You don't know what it's like to HATE your parents!"

Shouto stood in place, looking at the blind earthbender as she finished her monologue. He couldn't believe it; this girl had more things in common with him than he even thought possible. There was a silence that filled the air, and neither of the two teens spoke for what seemed like minutes. Shouto lowered his head slightly, allowing his hair to cover his eyes from view before he began to talk.

"...to hate your parents, huh?" Shouto muttered, mostly to himself, "Believe me - I've been there." The final part came out more as a growl, and Toph lowered her arms to her sides once she heard that. His heart rate had increased suddenly. 'Is he lying?" Toph asked herself as she kept her eyes on Shouto's figure, 'No, the change in his heart rate isn't because he's lying. There's a different feel to it, almost as though he's experiencing some kind of...rage.'

Silence filled the air yet again as both teens refused to say a word. Suddenly Shouto's head shot up, and he looked at Toph with a determined face. "I understand what you're going through; I truly do. But right now, you're making a mistake! Those people back there are your friends, and I know that you probably think they don't care about you anymore, but the fact is that when I left, I realized how much they regretted what they did. So please, Toph…..come back to the camp."

Toph remained in place, unmoving, as she listened to Shouto speak. As he talked, Toph detected many things in his voice like honesty, understanding, and empathy. For the third time, silence swept the area, causing Toph to shift uncomfortably in place. "Fine, i'll go back," she finally said, "but only because I promised Aang that i'd teach him earth bending! I don't break my promises!"

Shouto simply looked at Toph and gave her a small smile.

"Of course not," he said.

 **End of Chapter 5**

 **Author's Note: Wow, I thought I was on a roll, but y'know what?...Ive been slacking. I don't think I've even bothered to type anything for several days. I had writer's block, Okay? - not a major writing block obviously - but a writer's block nonetheless. I honestly wasn't going to do a Shouto and Toph pairing, but I kinda like where the story is going so I guess I'll have to actually do something with them. Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter (It was much longer than any of the other ones) and I will try to finish the next one soon! Thanks and Peace! :)**


	6. Chapter 6: Facing the Enemy

**Chapter 6: Facing the enemy**

Izuku stared out into the sky, hoping that Katsuki would be okay, and that Shouto would (hopefully) be able to track them. The team had split up for different reasons: Shouto went to convince Toph to rejoin the group after that little fiasco; Katsuki and Aang both left in order to lead the girls who were following them away from Appa; and Izuku joined Katara and Sokka to insure the bison's safety, as well as to establish a meetup point for everyone else.

Izuku finally lowered his head and let out a big sigh in an attempt to calm himself down. He looked across the saddle to see Katara steering Appa and Sokka trying to polish his boomerang. He chuckled to himself after examining the people around him; it was almost like they were a group of friends who were on vacation.

Suddenly, Izuku's thoughts were interrupted by Momo's loud screeching, and he quickly went to see what had upset the small animal. As he needed the bat-lemur, he noticed that it was pointing at something on the ground below. He peeked over the edge of the bison's saddle to see two large lizards on the ground that seemed to be chasing them. He looked closer and realized that two of the three girls that had been chasing them were the ones on the lizards.

"Crap!" Izuku said, cursing under his breath, "Hey, guys! We're being followed!" Katara was alerted to this and quickly looked down to spot the pursuers, "How did they find us?!" she questioned before she jolted Appa's reins to increase their speed. As Izuku kept his eyes on the assailants below, he heard the zipping of a small metal object passing beside his head. He then gasped, realizing that one of the girls began throwing ninja-like knifes at them.

Some of the knives completely missed their targets, while others implanted themselves in Appa's skin. The bison let out a loud roar as pain shock its body. The flying bison then began to slowly descend due to the massive amounts of pain it was enduring. Ahead of them appeared to be a river that divided one side of land from the other. "We just need to make it past that river!" Yelled Sokka as he threw his boomerang to intercept some of the knives in mid-air.

Appa's altitude continued to decrease as well as his speed, causing the lizards to gain on them. The bison tried its best, working through the pain in order to pass the river into safety. "C'mon, you can do it Appa!" Yelled Katara as she pet the large beast's head. As the river began to get closer, it looked like the group would be able to cross it. It was a close call, but eventually Appa managed to fully cross the river and land on the other side.

The three companions jumped from off of the bison and congratulated the bison for a job-well-done. Izuku smiled as he pet Appa's forehead and ears. "We did it!" Sokka screamed as he looked back. His wide grin was soon replaced by an unbelievably shocked face. Izuku's frown also began to fade as he turned around to see that the two lizards were running on the water.

"W-what in the-" was all Izuku could say before Katara stepped forth and sent a wave of water sailing toward the two targets. It would've worked, if their attackers hadn't jumped off their lizards and dodge the attack. The two girls landed on the ground just in front of them before running at them full speed. The girl in pink seemed to go directly for Izuku, running at a very frightening speed. She changed her mind, however, when she just narrowly dodged an attack by Sokka's boomerang. The girl in pink altered her course and was now headed for Sokka, who had just caught his boomerang.

Once she got close enough, Sokka tried to swing at her with the boomerang in his hand, but he missed and she sent a fury of jabs in his direction. 'It must be pressure points,' Izuku thought as he watched the girl continue to jab Sokka's body, 'she must rely on her speed to get an upper hand on her opponents.' Izuku then turned to face the other attacker who was currently fighting Katara. She appeared to be avoiding Katara's water bending attacks before throwing the knives from before. 'She stays away from the reach of her opponents, giving her a chance to use her throwing knives. Her attacks are range based.'

Once Izuku finished analyzing the two attackers, he quickly turned his attention back to the girl in the pink uniform, who had already immobilized Sokka. She suddenly picked up the pace and headed toward Izuku, who crouched down with his hands in front of him. 'I don't want to hurt her too bad, so I need to attack with enough force to knock her out, or at least send her back into the river.'

The girls came in quick and aimed for his joints along with certain muscle groups. However, he expected that and promptly blocked her attacks. 'She's not insanely fast,' Izuku thought to himself as he and the girl were exchanging blows, 'I mean, even Katsuki's attacks were faster than this.'

The two fighters finally broke apart as they both tried to regain their breath. "Hey, what's your name?" The girl in pink suddenly asked, to which Izuku replied with, "Huh?...i'm Izuku Midoriya. What's yours?" "My name's Ty Lee!" The girl practically squeaked. Izuku couldn't help but smile at the girl; he had never been asked such an irrelevant question in the middle of a fight by his opponent.

Izuku and Ty Lee had finally regained their strength, and they both ran back at each other, full-speed. Ty Lee was close as she just barely missed Izuku's shoulder with her first attack; this left her open. Izuku positioned his hand to her body and lightly tapped her stomach, causing her to go flying back into the river. Izuku continued to watch, hoping that she wasn't unconscious so she wouldn't drown. However, once he saw her resurface, he let out a long sigh of relief.

"It was a good fight!" Izuku yelled to her as he bowed, "I hope we can meet again sometime!" With that being said, he headed straight to the other attacker.

The attacker's name was Mai and she seemed to be giving Katara a run for her money. The young water bender looked like she was running out of stamina as Mai continued to send barrages of knives in her direction. "Hey, you!" Izuku said to get her attention. Mai looked at Izuku before throwing another set of knives at him. Izuku simply aimed his fingers in a 'flicking' position and released his middle finger, prompting the group of knives to be completely knocked off course...along with Mai.

"C'mon, let's go!" Shouted Katara as Izuku and a limp Sokka followed her onto Appa, who she had promptly healed. The black haired girl landed in the river next to Ty Lee, and the two warriors watched as they saw the bison leave. "Hey," began Ty Lee as she tried to wring out the water in her hair, "was it just me, or was that green haired guy kinda cute?" She asked, causing Mai to groan.

 **Meanwhile…**

Aang watched the ground for a place to land as he quietly soared through the sky. The continuous popping of Katsuki's explosions soon reached Aang's ears as he heard Katsuki speak, "Hey! How much longer do I have to do this?!" The avatar turned to the irritated blonde hero before he replied, "We're almost at a point where we can land. There's what looks like a town not far ahead." That must've been good news to Katsuki as he let out a great full sigh, "Thank Goodness! I could've sworn that we've already spent a few hours up here!"

They finally landed once Aang emptied out the final clumps of Appa's fur from the bag. "So now what do we do?" Asked Katsuki who looked around at the town that they were in. All of the buildings were abandoned and seemingly neglected as many of them were in bad condition. The sand that dirtied the streets were blown up by the oncoming wind that caused the dust to rise and pepper the air.

"Now," began Aang as he sat cross-legged in the dirt, "we wait."

 **With Toph and Shouto…**

Shouto and Toph were walking back to the campsite after the previous discussion they had. Shouto continued to look down at the girl, wondering whether or not she had any other secrets from her past; but that is none of his business, he decided. Toph must've noticed that he was looking at her because she eventually stopped walking, "You got something you want to say?" The question was, yet again, void of any aggression but still held a tone full of warning.

"No," Shouto replied, more apologetic than scared, " forgive me, I was thinking of something else." Toph let out a low grunt before continuing down the path. On their way down, Toph suddenly stopped again, but this time it wasn't because of Shouto. "There's someone nearby," she whispered to Shouto. Toph then stomped her foot, causing a crack to emerge in the ground and lead to something behind a nearby rock. Shouto then heard someone yell out loud as he and Toph approached the rock. "Owwww," said a voice from behind the rock, "That really hurt my tailbone!"

Shouto looked behind the rock to see a somewhat old man staring back up at him.

"Who are you?" The old man asked, "You bare a striking resemblance to my nephew."

Shouto stared blankly back at the man, "I do?" He asked, somewhat taken aback by the man's boldness. "Oh!" Exclaimed the man, almost as if he forgot something, "forgive me for my lack of manners. My name is Iroh. Would you two like to have tea with me?" Shouto then looked next to the man to see that some tea was being brewed in a pot. To be honest, Shouto was actually kind of curious about this strange man; there was something about him that Shouto found quite calming.

Shouto looked over at Toph, who had already sat down, before he decided to take a seat of his own. Iroh passed cups full of tea to the two teens before he took a sip of his own. "Thank you," Shouto stated as he gave the man a slight bow, prompting Toph to also thank the man, "Yeah, thanks." Iroh smiled at the two kids before he set his cup down, "There is no need to thank me. Tea is best enjoyed when in the company of others."

Iroh's face soon became more serious, "You two look a little too young to be traveling alone." He said as he took a sip of his tea again. "You look a little too old," quipped Toph, looking down at her cup of tea. Iroh simply let out a hearty laugh before saying, "Yes, perhaps I am." Toph finally took a sip of her tea before speaking again, "I know what you're both thinking - I don't look like I can handle being by myself."

Iroh gave Toph a surprised look, "I wasn't thinking that." He said. "Neither was I." Responded an equally surprised Shouto. "You wouldn't even let me pour my own cup of tea," Toph stated as she gestured to the half-full pot of tea. Iroh stared at her for a moment before deciding to explain, "I poured your tea because I wanted to and for no other reason."

"People see me and think i'm weak," Toph began as she looked sternly at the ground, "They want to take care of me, but I can take care of myself BY myself." Iroh watched as Toph took another sip of tea, "You remind me of my nephew, always thinking you have to do things on your own without anyone's support. There is nothing wrong with letting people who love you, help you." Shouto nodded in agreement with Iroh, "he speaks the truth, Toph. You don't always have to do things on your own. I learned that lesson the hard way. The main thing that you need to understand is that, when all is said and done, those who love you will stay by your side no matter what."

Toph stared down at the ground as she took a sip of her tea again, "Hmmmm. That actually makes sense. Thank you." Shouto simply gave Toph a bow before turning to Iroh, "You spoke of your nephew a few times and even compared me to him. Where is he?" Iroh's head lowered as he answered Shouto's question, "I've been tracking him, actually."

"Is he lost?" Asked Toph. "Yes, a little bit," replied Iroh, "his life has recently changed and he's going through some very difficult times. He's trying to figure out who he is, so he went away."

"So you're following him?" Asked Toph as her face changed to that of concern. Iroh nodded, "I know he probably doesn't want me around, but if he needs me, i'll be there." Toph gave him a warm smile, "Your nephew is very lucky," she said, "even if he doesn't know it."

Toph then proceeded to stand up, "Thank you. Tank you, both." Shouto slowly stood up, joining Toph, before gently smiling at her, "You're welcome." He said. Iroh joined the two teens in smiling as he held up his cup, "My pleasure. Sharing stories with fascinating strangers is one of life's true delights." Toph looked at Iroh and then back to Shouto, "No, thank you for what you guys said;...it helped me."

"No problem." Iroh stated as he drank some more of his tea. "Oh, and about your nephew, maybe you should tell him that you need him, too," Toph said as she and Shouto began to walk along the path. Iroh didn't reply, and instead simply finished his tea.

"So, do you think you're ready to go back?" Questioned Shouto as they continued down the path.

Toph smiled and simply said, "Yes, I do."

 **End of chapter 6**

 **Author's Note: Ohhhhhhhhh! The plot thickens. I'm honestly itchen for the upcoming battle scenes, those will be fun to write about. I was also wondering whether or not I should give Shouto a power up (like a hidden ability to water bend, not just control ice.) Well, anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Like always, i'll try my best to finish the next one as soon as possible. Please leave comments about what your thoughts were over this, I like reading what people have to say. Thanks and Peace! :)**


	7. Chapter 7: Azula

**Chapter 7: Azula**

It had been about 20 minutes since they first landed, and Katsuki was becoming slightly more anxious. "Ugggg!" He growled as he paced back and forth, "When are they gunna get here? Of course they would show up whenever we try to sleep, but when we actually want them here, they're nowhere to be seen!" As Katsuki continued to mutter to himself while pacing around the same spot, Aang had been carefully meditating, preparing for when the attackers would finally show up.

A few more minutes passed and Katsuki was just as angry as he was before. Aang then opened his eyes to see an approaching figure in the distance, "There!" He quickly said, alerting Katsuki to the presence of the figure, "Someone's coming!" Katsuki squinted out over the distance to indeed see a figure that was headed there way. A wide grin suddenly plastered the blonde's face, "Finally!" He said, keeping his eyes situated on the figure.

Once the figure got close enough, the two teens could see that it was someone riding what looked to be a giant lizard. As the lizard entered the town, the two boys could see that it was one of the three girls from before. Katsuki carefully examined her as she swiftly dismounted the lizard, 'hmmmm.' He thought to himself while looking at her, 'Last time we saw her, she was in between the other two girls; usually, that's a sign of superiority. The fact that she is the only one of them who's wearing armor, might mean that she has some military background. Also, the way she carries herself shows that she's confident in her abilities to fight…..This should be fun.'

"Ok," Katsuki yelled, pointing to the girl, "You've caught up to us, so what the hell do you want?" The black haired girl slightly frowned at Katsuki's outburst, "Who are you?" She asked, lifting an eyebrow. "I'm the guy who's gunna kick your ass!" Growled Katsuki as he balled his hands into fists. The girl slightly chuckled before she turned to face the avatar. "Who are you?" Aang simply asked before standing back up. "You mean you haven't guessed? You don't see the family resemblance? Maybe this will help…" the girl said as she raised her hand to cover her eye.

"I must find the avatar to restore my honor," she said in a deep voice that sounded like she was mocking someone. Aang and Katsuki both stared at her in silence, neither one having any idea who or what she was talking about. "It's okay," the girl said suddenly, breaking the deafening silence, "You can laugh. It's funny." Aang regained his composure and began to speak again, "So, what now?" He asked, giving the dark haired girl a small shrug.

"Now?" She repeated before she took a step forward, "Now it's over. You're both tired and have no place to go. You can run, but i'll catch you."

Katsuki glared at the girl and said, "Like hell we're running."

 **Meanwhile, with Izuku…**

As the trio flew on Appa, they were searching for signs of where Aang had gone to. "How the heck are we supposed to find out where Aang went? And I thought we were suppose to set up a meetup point," groaned Sokka, who had now almost fully recovered from his limp state.

"Look for a trail of fur," Izuku replied, "If we find that trail, we can use it to find Aang. Also we couldn't set a meetup point up because those girls had followed us. We didn't plan for them to find us so soon, so we need to change our previous plan to finding Aang."

Katara had been quiet almost the entire time since they had left Ty Lee and Mai in the river. "Ummmm, Izuku," Katara finally asked, causing Izuku's head to jerk up slightly, "I don't think I got the chance to thank you back there; y'know...when you saved me from earlier."

Izuku stared at her for a couple seconds before nervously scratching the back of his head and replying with, "No problem." Katara smiled in response and turned back to steer Appa.

"Dude, that was amazing!" Sokka practically bellowed, inching over to Izuku with a large smile on his face, "You took out those two fire nation girls like it was nothing! You were like - BOOM and they were like - POW and then you just went - KABOOM!"

Izuku laughed a little bit at Sokka's ranting until Katara gathered both of their attention. "Guys, I found Aang's trail!" She said as she pointed down to a collection of fur that looked like it went on for miles.

"Nice!" Izuku exclaimed, "We'll catch up to Aang in no time!"

"Yeah," Katara said as she looked out over the horizon, "Don't worry, Aang, we're coming!"

 **With Toph and Shouto…**

The two teens had finally returned to the campsite, only to see that it was empty. "What the hell?" Toph said, looking around, "Where did everyone go? Did they really hate me that much?" Shouto turned to her, almost immediately, and said, "No, of course they don't hate you. They never did." Toph let out a small giggle, due to Shouto completely missing the sarcasm in her comment. "I know," She said as they walked further, "I was just kidding. I'm sure they had a really good reason to leave."

Shouto didn't reply and, instead, decided to look around. He walked to a pile of what he thought was Appa's hair, only to realize that the pile was continuous and formed a small trail of fur. He narrowed his eyes at the trail before looking over at a nearby river. As he approached the river, he noticed that there were clumps of fur (also Appa's) that seemed to be stuck on some rocks in the water.

Shouto stood there for a few moments, putting two and two together. "I know where they went," he finally said as he deduced what happened, "They must've taken your advice and washed the bison. One of them might have put down a false trail so as to lead their pursuers in the wrong direction. So, if we want to find them, we must follow this trail."

"But we don't know when they left," stated Toph, "so they could be miles away by now." Shouto nodded and said, "That is possible, which is why we need to move as fast as we can."

There was silence before Toph suddenly yelled, "Race ya!" And conjured forth the movement of the rocks beneath her to propel her forward. As Shouto watched Toph leave, a smirk appeared on his face as he prepared his own means of transportation.

Similar to Toph, Shouto created a massive ice structure that carried him forward in pursuit of Toph. The two teens hurried down the trail of fur and disappeared into the forest.

 **Back with Aang and Katsuki…**

The duo stood together against the female fire bender as the dust was flown into the air by an oncoming breeze. "Do you two really want to fight me?" She asked, a sly grin appearing on her face. Suddenly, almost out of nowhere, a fourth voice said, "Yes, I really do." As a young man appeared from behind a nearby building. The man seemed to be riding a large ostrich-type bird that slowed down as he jumped off of it. The man then took off a large straw hat, revealing a severely scarred part of his face.

"Zuko!" Aang exclaimed, obviously surprised at the man's sudden arrival. "Huh? You know this guy?" Asked a confused Katsuki, to which Aang replied, "Yeah, he's been chasing us nonstop, practically around the entire world." Katsuki looked back up at the man, "He kinda looks like Shouto…..what the hell?"

"I was wondering when you were going to show up, Zuzu," the dark haired girl said to the man, causing Aang to hide a small chuckle, "'Zuzu'?" He asked putting a hand on his mouth. The man, now known as Zuko, got into a defensive pose as he stared at the dark haired girl, "Back off, Azula! He's mine!" Zuko said as he gestured to Aang. There was a short silence as the girl, introduced as Azula, also struck a pose, "I'm not going anywhere," she replied.

There was a long pause as each of the opponents took their time preparing what they would do. Aang and Katsuki followed the others' lead, taking their own defensive poses. No one dared attack first as each of them were waiting for the other's move. There was silence that spread throughout the town beside the shifting of sand and the blowing of wind. Tension rose as the four warriors refused to move from their spots.

However, the silence was quickly ended when Azula attacked first, sending a wonderful display of blue fire at Zuko, who attempted to block it but was flung into a nearby building. "We need to put some distance between us and them!" Yelled Aang as he took his glider into the sky. His efforts, however, were promptly discovered by the female bender as she generated a projection of fire from her fingertips.

Aang quickly turned his body around and began spinning his staff in between his hands, creating a small wind shield that dispersed the blue flames. Katsuki charged at Azula as he held his hands by his sides. The fire bender then went for a direct attack by outstretching her arm, causing a vortex of fire to be unleashed. Katsuki put his arms in front of him and swiftly split the fire apart, using small centralized explosions.

As Katsuki neared Azula, he noticed that took on a different stance. Her legs were now wide apart from each other; her chest had been shifted to one side; and she held her arms together by connecting both of her wrists. 'She's gunna do a wide attack!' Katsuki estimated. Once Azula released her attack, Katsuki used his explosions to narrowly avoid the sea of flames, quickly landing behind the fire bender. "Gotcha!" He yelled as he lunged forward, reaching for her arm.

Azula let out a grunt, trying to dodge the young blond's attack. Her arm quickly zipped to her side as she jumped away from Katsuki. She landed a couple yards away, and she slowly began to stand up straight. "You're good, i'll give you that," Azula said as Katsuki simply glared back in response, "How would you like to work for me? I am the princess of the fire nation, after all. I can provide you with whatever you want."

"Nope, nice try!" Katsuki said, smiling, "I may be hanging with a bunch of losers, but that doesn't mean that i'll leave them to join some assholes!" Azula simply frowned at him and remained silent. "Wait a minute," Katsuki began again, "You're the princess of the fire nation?" Azula grinned slightly, hoping that he would understand the position he's in and change his mind; instead he gave her a demonic smile. Chills ran down her spine as Katsuki took a few steps toward her, wearing a horrifying smile.

"So, you're saying," Katsuki began, his eyes fixed on Azula, "that if I kill you here and now…..then this war is as good as over?!" Azula swallowed and backed away, pretending not to be afraid of the monster in front of her; but she was. She had never had this feeling before. She had never felt her body tremble so much. She had never felt FEAR.

Azula slowly regained her composure as she nervously gulped, "If your goal was to intimidate me, then you are doing a horrible job of it." She said, doing her best to remain calm. "Is that a fact?" Katsuki asked menacingly, "Then why are you still backing up?" Azula's eyes widened as she looked down to see that she had been subconsciously keeping her distance from him this entire time.

"ENOUGH!" She yelled as blue fire erupted around her hands, "I shall end this!" She took a step forward, as did Katsuki, until the two opponents were standing directly in front of each other. "If you want an early death," Katsuki growled under his breath, "then who am I to stop you?"

Azula let out a roar as the two fighters collided, creating a miniature explosion that designated the nearby land.

Meanwhile, Aang was doing his best to avoid Zuko's fire blasts as he ducked, rolled, jumped over some. "Grrrrr! Stand still!" Zuko said through gritted teeth. The airbender, however, continued to effortlessly dodge his attacks until Zuko finally stopped. "Wait, Zuko!" Aang said as he held out his hand pleadingly, "I know how badly you want to capture me, but the fact is that Azula is more of a threat to you right now."

Zuko looked at the avatar before giving his response, "So? What are you saying?" Aang jumped down from the building he had landed on and walked up to Zuko, "I'm saying that we can't do anything as long as Azula is here; she posses too much of a threat. Y'know that old saying - 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'?"

Zuko stood in silence before he gave his very clear and simple answer, "Fine."

With that being said, Zuko and Aang headed to the location from where all of the explosions were occurring to face Azula.

As they neared the battleground, they saw Katsuki and Azula locked in physical battle. They two were exchanging blows as quickly as they were dishing them out, but it looked like they were beginning to reach their limit.

Katsuki got one final hit in and sent Azula crashing into the side of a wall. She quickly got up to return to the fight, but for some reason she couldn't move. She looked down and saw that ice had firmly planted her feet to the ground. She turned her head to look behind her and saw two silhouettes. "Katsuki," one of the silhouettes said as it stepped forth, "What's been taking you so long?"

"Shouto…" Katsuki quietly grunted as he approached the ice-user.

"Your battle has been going on for quite some time," Shouto said as he stepped out from the shadows, "don't you think you should've ended it sooner?" The Red and white haired teen was soon followed by Toph as she followed his lead and stepped out from the shadows. "Yeah," she agreed as she joined Shouto, "she doesn't look so tough. What took so long?"

Shouto quietly scanned the group and saw something that caught his attention. It was another boy about his age who also seemed to have a scar on his face. The boy with the scar looked at Shouto and for a moment, both of them wondered whether the other had a tragic story to tell, but that could wait.

Azula let out a girlish laugh before addressing those behind her, "Hello, i'm still here. Honestly, don't you have any manners?" Suddenly her feet were engulfed in blue flames as the ice quickly melted. The fire princes then jumped away from the group and landed near a building corner.

Out of the corner of her eye she could see more people who were approaching. "Aang!" Yelled one of them as Izuku, Katara, and Sokka ran out to greet the group from behind a building. "You need to corner her," came another voice from behind them. They turned around and looked to see an old man approaching the group.

"Uncle!" Zuko yelled once he saw the man.

"Iroh!" Toph and Shouto both shouted.

Once the man joined the group, without any other questions, everyone turned to face Azula. As they inched toward the trapped fire princess, she took a look around her and smiled, "Well, look at this," she began, "Enemies and traitors, all working together." She then proceeded to raise her arms in defeat, "You've got me. I know when i'm beaten. A princess surrenders with honor."

Nobody trusted her and instead continued their advance. There was a short silence that filled the air. Suddenly Azula sent a stream of electricity at Iroh, hitting him directly in the chest. The man groaned and fell to the ground. Without wasting any time, everyone in the group attacked he simultaneously, hoping that it would be enough.

In combination with everyone's attack, there was a massive explosion that erupted, destroying the nearby land.

 **End of chapter 7**

 **Author's Note: This story is honestly going better than I had hopped. I still want for Shouto and Zuko to interact more, but I guess that won't happen anytime soon. Please comment. Thanks and Peace! :)**


	8. Chapter 8: Training Day

**Chapter 8: Training Day**

Everyone's in the group covered their eyes as dust and debris caked the surrounding atmosphere. Once the dust finally cleared, the group looked to see whether they had gotten Azula, but instead they saw an empty corner. Zuko quickly went to his uncle's side and kneeled next to him, placing his hands on his uncle's now unconscious body. Zuko let out an aggravated growl and placed his face in his hands. The group stood behind him, dumbfounded, especially Shouto and Toph who had already met the old man.

As the group approached, Zuko quickly turned to them and screamed, "Get away from us!" Katara neared the fire nation prince, offering her assistance, "Zuko, I can help," she said in a worried tone. "LEAVE!" Zuko yelled as he threw a small amount of flames in their direction. Although the flames weren't strong enough to hurt anyone, it did a good enough job to get its point across - leave now. The group looked at one another before they swiftly turned around and left.

The group made their way to Appa and mounted the bison, hoping to get as much sleep as they could. Once everyone had gotten on, Aang yelled, "yip. Yip," causing Appa to let out a growl and take off into the sky.

The sky began to darken, and many of the group members had already fallen asleep; the only ones who were still awake were Toph, Shouto, and Aang. (he was guiding Appa) "Hey, ice tea," Toph said as she looked to Shouto who held a confused expression on his face. "Huh? What did you call me?" Shouto asked after he looked around for another person she may be talking to. Toph giggled at his child-like mannerisms, "I called you 'ice tea', y'know because you can control ice and all" she said, placing her arms in her lap, "it's a nickname I came up with ,for you." Shouto blinked at her and looked up at the sky, "hmmmm. I don't think i've ever had a nickname before. I like it."

Toph smiled at him, "Well, since you were the one who convinced me to come back, I figured it was only right to give you a nickname." Shouto looked back down from the sky and gave Toph a slight grin, causing her to smile back. However Toph's smile slowly began to fade as she lowered her head slightly, "Hey, Shouto," she said, almost whispering, "do you think that Iroh will be okay?" There was a short silence before Shouto spoke, "Don't worry about him. He'll be fine. After all, no one can make tea as good as he can."

Toph's smile seemed to return as lifted her head back up, "Yeah, you're right. Thanks, ice tea," she said, adding emphasis on the nickname. Shouto let out a chuckle before he laid his back down on the leather saddle, "You should get some sleep," he said as he closed his eyes, "I heard Aang was pretty excited to start his earth bending training tomorrow."

"Yeah, but he's always like that," Toph said, scratching her nose, "well anyway, good night, *snicker*...Ice tea."

Shouto kept his eyes closed and smiled, "Good night, Toph."

 **The next morning…..**

It had been a few hours since the group had landed and everyone was still sleeping. Aang had landed Appa in a relatively safe area so the group could rest for the night. Now it was morning and the sun gently shined upon the rocks that surrounded them. The group had landed in between collections of rock-like pillars that decorated the area, most likely to hide them from anyone who attempted to follow them.

Izuku let out a loud yawn as he slowly rose to come face to face with a smiling Aang. Izuku's eyes suddenly shot open as he was genuinely surprised to see a face so close to him, and in the morning nonetheless. "Aang?" Izuku asked in a groggy voice, "What's going on? Why are you so close? Are we being attacked?!" Aang simply let out a laugh, listening to Izuku asking so many questions, "No, man! Guess what day it is!" Aang said as he raised his hands up in the air.

"Ummmm. Thursday?" Izuku said with a half-awake expression. "How about 'shut the hell up' - day!" screamed a tired Katsuki from within the comfort of his sleeping bag. "Nope!" Aang immediately replied with an obvious amount of excitement in his voice, "Today is the day that I begin my earth bending training! Can you believe it? After all that time searching for a teacher, i'm finally starting earth bending! And this place is perfect! "

Izuku, not sure if he should be happy for the air bender or afraid for him, simply gave a weak smile and replied with, "Good for you." Aang then excitedly yelled over to Sokka who was, at this point, still trying to sleep, "Wouldn't you agree, Sokka?…...Sokka?"

The water tribe boy groaned and looked at Aang with sleepy red eyes. "Oh! You're still sleeping, huh?" Aang said as he smiled down at Sokka. Sokka groaned again and swiftly turned his back to Aang who apologetically whispered, "sorry." Suddenly the ground began to shake, and Aang confusingly stumbled back slightly. "Gooooood morning, earthbending student!" bellowed a nearby voice as Toph lept out from her personally made tent.

She then proceeded to walk to Aang as he gave a quick bow, "Good morning, Sifu Toph." "Hey," Katara said in a somewhat offended tone as she sat up from her sleeping bag, "You never call me 'Sifu Katara'." Aang turned to her and scratched the back of his bald head, "Well, if you think I should…" Sokka then sat up, wanting to confront those who were disturbing his sleep. Sokka's attempts to tell them to stop talking came out as indiscernible grunts and muffled yells. "Sorry, 'snoozles'," Toph said as she gently put her hands together, "we'll do our earth bending as quietly as we can."

Suddenly Toph earth bended Sokka into the air, causing the dark skinned boy to scream as he came plummeting back down to the ground. He then got back up, still in his sleeping bag, and immediately hopped away, all the while mumbling to himself.

Aang's attention soon reverted back to Toph as he jumped next to young girl, "So, what are you going to teach me first?!" he said, striking a pose, "'Rockalanche'? 'The Trembler'? Or maybe I can learn to make a whirlpool out of land -" The airbender's excited rant was soon cut short by Toph's interruption, "Let's start with: Move a rock," she said plainly. "Sounds good! Sounds good!" Aang eagerly agreed.

At this point, Izuku had fully woken up and was folding his sleeping bag so he could stash it with the other equipment. He then stretched his arms into the air and let out a loud yawn, "I guess if you guys are going to be training, we should probably get busy too." Aang gave Izuku a confused glance before he decided to ask, "What do you mean? You guys are going to train too?" Izuku flashed Aang an equally confused glance before deciding to respond, "Well, of course. In our world, me, Katsuki, and Shouto all practice with each other almost everyday."

Katara then looked around and asked, "By the way, where is Shouto?"

"He's probably out training already," replied a now awake Katsuki, "he's the kind of person to wake up really early to go practice. It's actually kinda annoying." Izuku nodded in agreement with Katsuki (not about the 'annoying' comment, of course.), "Yeah, out of all of us he's probably the hardest working. Anyway, we should go join him before he works himself too hard." With that being said, the two heroes stood up and walked off, leaving behind a wide-eyed Aang.

As Izuku and Katsuki continued to walk, they spotted Shouto standing in a nearby clearing, presumably taking a break. But then ,as they got closer, they noticed that his left side was activated and that fire was seeping from his arms and fingers. They then watched as a massive collection of flames erupted from Shouto's arms, causing his entire left side to be engulfed in fire. This brilliant display of power was not for show, however, and Shouto quickly shot a concentrated fire beam at a giant boulder in front of him. The flames made contact with the rock and quickly surrounded it, causing smoke to form from the initial impact.

As the fire subsided and the smoke had cleared, the two teens were surprised to see that almost half of the entire boulder had been melted. Izuku and Katsuki continued to watch as Shouto quickly fell to his knees, breathing heavily. "H-he used his l-left side?" whispered Izuku, astonishment evident in his voice. "It looks like that punk is finally beginning to understand," stated a grinning Katsuki. "Huh? What do you mean?" Izuku asked, looking up at Katsuki. "He's finally realized that he needs to confront his past if he's ever going to progress. If he's going to help save this world, he first needs to help the avatar as much as he can. In order to do that, he needs to be in full control of his powers at all times. It's what any good hero would do."

Izuku stared at Katsuki as he spoke then turned his attention back to Shouto. He couldn't explain it, but there was something about what Shouto was doing that made Izuku want to do his very best. It seemed to empower him with the desire to become stronger. If he had to explain what he felt - it was 'INSPIRATION and RESPECT'.

"I see," Izuku said as a wide grin spread across his face, "Well, I can't just sit here and wait while Shouto is out there getting stronger. I say we get in there now and give it our all!"

Katsuki stayed quiet for a few seconds before a smile appeared on his face, "Yeah, let's show this guy what real 'hard work' is like!"

"Damn!" Shouto muttered as he fell to his knees due to exhaustion, "My attacks still aren't strong enough. I can't even get rid of this stupid boulder." Warm breaths escaped his throat and he could feel the muscles on his left arm begin to throb. "Iv'e been doing this for over two hours and i've shown no improvement whatsoever!" Shouto let out an agitated grunt and firmly hit the ground with his fist, "Damn it all," he said.

Suddenly he heard someone calling to him from behind. He turned around to see Izuku and Katsuki both approaching him. Izuku was waving from a distance, calling his name with a smile, and Katsuki held an aloof expression on his face as he crossed his arms. "Hey, Shouto," Izuku said, walking up to him, "How long have you been out here?" Shouto wiped some sweat from his forehead and answered, "I believe it had been slightly over two hours since I first began practicing."

"Wow," Izuku said, taken aback by Shouto's answer, "That's super early." Shouto simply shrugged and wiped more beads of sweat from his forehead, "Indeed. But i'm not even close to being done, I still have some questions I want to ask Katara." Izuku was surprised by Shouto's statement and decided to ask what he meant, "Katara? What do you want to know from Katara?"

Shouto looked down at his right hand before he spoke, "You both know what my quirk is, correct? It gives me the ability control fire and ice using the left and right side of my body respectively. However, although these abilities may be considered very powerful in our world, it is fairly commonplace in this one. Water benders, for example, are able to automatically change the state of water from solid to liquid to gas and vice versa. I am very limited in this aspect because I can only control one of the three states of water - ice. However, this has raised certain sets of questions that may relate to my power. Is there a way I can learn to fully 'water bend'? If so, how can I accomplish this? I seek Katara's aid because, out of everyone in the group, she is the most well-versed in the art of water bending."

"Woah," Izuku said, staring open-mouthed at Shouto, "Do you think you'll be able to do it?" he asked. "I hope so," Shouto said as he continued to stare at his right hand. He then blinked and focused his attention back on the two heroes in front of him, "well, if you'll excuse me, i'll take my leave." Shouto slowly bowed before he began to walk away in search for Katara.

 **With Toph and Aang…**

The two benders stood in an open area that seemed to be surrounded by rocks from all sides. Katara sat on some large rocks as she watched Toph and Aang practice. "Now," said Toph, "The key to earth bending is your stance. You've got to be steady and strong; rock is a stubborn element. If you're going to move it, you need to be like a rock yourself." Aang listened and nodded, understanding Toph's metaphor, "Like a rock…..got it."

"Good," said Toph as she got into her stance, "Now the actual motion of this one is pretty simple." Toph stood with her hands by her sides as she faced a boulder in front of her. Her body then dropped as she bent her knees and shot one arm foreword toward the boulder, sending the large rock sliding into a nearby mountain. Standing back up, she looked at Aang and asked, "Ready to give it a try?" Aang nodded and assumed the pose that Toph had, with his hands at his sides.

He then followed the same motion that Toph had done; he bent his knees and shot one arm out in front of him toward the boulder. However, instead of the boulder moving, Aang was the one who was shot back several hundred feet. He slid back and hit Appa, who didn't even flinch, before harmlessly falling to the ground.

Toph sighed then turned around, noticing that someone was approaching them. "Well, well, well, if it isn't ice tea," she said as Shouto quietly walked up to her. He gave a small smile and looked up to see Aang walking back to the boulder. "My apologies," Shouto said to Toph who looked at him with a confused expression, "I did not mean to disrupt your earth bending lessons, but I wish to speak with Katara."

Toph and Aang looked surprisingly at Katara and then at each other.

"Me?" Katara asked, pointing to herself, "What do you want me for?" Shouto then walked over to her and bowed.

"I ask that you please teach me to water bend," he said as Katara stared back at him, wide-eyed.

 **End of chapter 8**

 **Author's Note: This chapter took a little longer to complete because I was stuck on how I wanted Shouto to learn water bending. And in case there was anyone wondering - NO, there will be no Shouto and Katara pairing in this story. I remember that someone had commented on whether Izuku, Shouto, or Katsuki know that Toph is blind in this story. The answer to that is 'yes', i'm sorry if I didn't make it clear because I don't think I wrote about any of them being aware that she is blind. I may write a chapter where Toph's blindness comes up though. But anyway, I hope you guys liked the story! Please comment on what your thoughts were, and I will see you later. Thanks and Peace! :)**


	9. Chapter 9: The new student

**Chapter 9: The new student**

Shouto kept his head down, patiently waiting for Katara's reply, but the only thing he could hear was silence. "Wait, what?" Katara finally said ,almost yelling, "Y-you want me to teach you how to water bend?" Shouto then raised his head and looked directly at Katara, "Yes, please. I am unsure whether or not I'm capable of fully controlling water. As you know, my main power is the creation and manipulation of ice; however, ice is only one aspect of water. I wish to expand the abilities of my quirk, but in order to do that, I require your help."

Katara stared back at Shouto, not knowing how to respond. Of course, she was already teaching Aang how to water bend, but that was different - he was the avatar. How was she going to teach someone to water bend if they weren't sure whether or not they could do it. Just as Katara was about to regretfully tell him 'no', she looked into his eyes. There was something about how he looked at her that kind of reminded her of Aang; behind the softness of his eyes, Katara saw a great deal of determination in them. But there was also a difference from what she saw in Aang; the type of determination she saw was the result of either emotional or physical pain. Maybe both. Pain makes people want to become stronger.

Katra's mind battled over the decision, fighting with the pros and cons. Finally, a few minutes later, she spoke, "Yes, I accept. If you wish to learn how to water bend, then I will teach you to the best of my abilities." Shouto gave Katara a gentle smile, obviously glad that Katara had accepted him as her student.

"Good for you, ice tea," Toph suddenly said, smacking Shouto on the back, "but do you think you can leave now so me and twinkle toes over here can finish our bending lessons?"

"Oh,...of course," Shouto replied, bowing to Toph and Aang before he slowly walked away, followed closely behind by Katara.

 **With Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai…**

The trio sat aboard Azula's ship, talking about where the avatar might be. "We must find them again," stated Azula as she sat in her 'royal chair', "the future of the fire nation depends on if, or rather WHEN, we catch the avatar, but we must locate them first." Mai lazily crossed her arms and looked up at the ceiling, "Well sure, but what do we do when we find them? I don't know if you've noticed - they've got some new fighters on their side."

"Oooohhh, you mean like that green haired guy? He was sooo cute!" Ty Lee squealed as she raised her hands up in the air. "He also kicked both of our assess into the river, Ty Lee," Mai sternly replied, not looking at her brown haired friend, "How did he even beat you? I thought you were right in front of him. You normally take out guys like that in a couple hits." Ty Lee put a finger to her chin as the thought about how to answer, "Well….he was really fast, so I couldn't get a clear shot on him. Also, how was I supposed to know he was an airbender?"

"Air bender?" Azula questioned, immediately looking in Ty Lee's direction, "What do you mean he was an 'air bender'? All of the air benders, minus the avatar, were killed 100 years ago; none of them were left alive."

"Ty Lee's right, he had to be an air bender," interjected Mai, "the techniques that guy used seemed to involve the movement of air currents. When I threw my kunai at him, he just knocked them out of the air like they were nothing. There's no other way he could've done that unless he was an air bender or unless he was capable of generating massive amounts of force."

Azula gritted her teeth, "Either way, he could prove to be potentially troublesome." Ty Lee then looked at Azula and asked, "What about the guy you were fighting? Y'know, the one you told us about who was always shouting." Suddenly Azula's blood went cold as she remembered her encounter with that blond haired demon, "He…..may also prove to be…...potentially problematic. I was careless during my battle with that fool and let him surprise me; but believe me, it will never happen again."

 **With Katara and Shouto…**

The two teens stood in a pond as Katara gently put her hands directly over the surface of the water. Before they began the lesson, Shouto was busy wondering if having Katara teach him water bending was just a waste of both their time. If he really wanted to get stronger, he should've worked more on his left side, but Shouto had a problem using THAT man's power. The wounds from his childhood still haven't healed; Shouto didn't like having to be reminded of HIM.

"So," Katara began, slowly bending the water to form a ball of liquid, "I haven't seen you use your powers that often, but it seems to me that it's not necessarily your CONTROL of the water that limits your ability, it is the WAY that you control it." Shouto gave Katara a blank stare before hesitantly asking, "What do you mean?"

"Hmmmm," Katara hummed as she tried to think of a better explanation, "Well, even though I'm not completely sure how your quirk works, it seems to me that if you're able to control ice you should be able to control water as long as you have the proper training. Have you ever tried controlling water before?"

Shouto blinked at Katara's sudden question. Since he was young, he had always thought that his right side was only capable of manipulating ice, but this may have been because he simply never thought of trying to control water before. Shouto looked at Katara and said, "No. I don't believe I have ever tried to control water before."

Katara gave him a slight smile as she continued, "Well there's your problem. For your whole life you thought that ice was the only thing you could control ,and now, because of that, you have subconsciously limited the ability of your quirk." Shouto looked down at his right hand as he clenched it into a ball.

'She's right,' he thought, 'if i'm ever going to gain full control over my powers, I need to break all of my mental barriers. But how am I supposed to do that?'

"Understood," Shouto said as he slightly nodded, "So, where do I begin?" "Well, first of all," Katara said in a serious tone, "before you can actually control water, you must understand how it moves. If you were to examine a stream of water ,for example, you would notice that it simply flows around the objects in its environment. Water never interacts with things head on; instead, it takes its time and wears down whatever is in its path."

Suddenly, Katara gently moved her hand, and Shouto watched as a small ball of water was raised into the air. The female water bender then shifted her shoulders as her hand swiftly moved forward in a jolt, causing the ball of water to dart away and splash into a nearby rock.

"Amazing," Shouto muttered to himself. "Now," Katara said as she walked over to Shouto, "when you're water bending, you should always have a feeling of the state of the water as well as its location. Basically, this means that you should detect what shape the water is in as well as its state of matter." (i.e: solid, liquid, gas)

Shouto nodded as he listened to Katara's words, even though it was a lot of information to take in. "Go ahead, try it," she said with a grin. Shouto glanced at Katara, who gave him a reassuring smile, and he took in a deep breath. A few seconds passed by as Shouto concentrated on the water before him. He outstretched his hand toward the water and let out a quiet grunt as he strained to move the liquid.

For a while, nothing happened, but after a few minutes passed, the water in front of Shouto began bubble. Shouto narrowed his eyes in concentration, putting all of his focus into moving even a 'drop' of water. As he continued, the bubbling began to increase and the surface of the water seeped to budge upward. There was most certainly a discernible shape that slowly emerged from the water as Shouto's grunts grew louder.

"Damn it," Shouto quietly cursed, "c'mon. C'mon. C'mon. C'mon. C'mon."

Katara stared at Shouto, slightly worried, as the surface of the pond's water began to violently fluctuate. Suddenly, there was an explosion of water in front of Shouto that caused globs of water to erupt into the air. Shouto's eyes remained locked on his target and he bit his bottom lip to maintain concentration. Then Katara's eyes began to widen as she looked at what Shouto was doing; there, in front of him, was a giant ball of water that hovered in the air, it was about 15 feet wide.

Suddenly, the massive ball of water lost its form and fell back into the pond as Shouto fell down to his knees into the shallow water. The massive liquid sphere collided back into the pond's surface, causing ripples to quickly disperse throughout the pond. Shouto, still on his knees, was panting heavily as he tried his best to get back up.

"H-how did I do?" Shouto asked, clearly out of breath. Katara looked at him with wide eyes, "That was incredible for your first time! What you did just now was extremely advanced!"

Shouto smiled and let out a cough, "Good. So, I guess that means i've got lots of practice to do."

 **With Izuku and Katsuki…**

"RAAAAAAAAAA!" Katsuki yelled as he launched his body at Izuku, who narrowly dodged it by ducking beneath him. "Ha!" Katsuki screamed, using the force of his explosions to reverse him momentum, effectively going backwards.

The two heroes had decided to spar in order to better hone their skills. Ever since they saw Shouto practicing, they figured they should probably get in a good workout too.

"You think you can get away from ME that EASILY?!" Katsuki rotated his body to face Izuku as the distance between them closed. "Crap," Izuku grunted, trying to come up with a plan.

Izuku noticed a nearby boulder that was situated right next to him. He quickly jumped beside it, activating his quirk, and kicked it toward Katsuki. "YOU REALLY THINK A ROCK IS GUNNA DO SHIT TO ME! Katsuki sneered as he reeled his arm back and formed a fist with his hands. In the moment of impact with the boulder, Katsuki shot his fist forward and used his quirk to break it into a thousand pieces.

"SEE?! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU THINK THAT WAS GUNNA-" Katsuki's words were cut short once he saw that Izuku had emerged from behind the pieces of the currently smashed boulder that were in the air. "Shit," he muttered, raising his arms above his head to provide a reverse-attack. The two heroes then collided, causing a massive explosion to erupt all around them.

As the dust cleared, both heroes were lying on their backs next to each other. "So *pant**pant*", Izuku began, trying to catch his breadth, "What do you think?" "What do I think? *pant*" Katsuki asked, equally as tired, "I think you got *pant* lucky."

Izuku turned his head to look at the sunset on the horizon, "It's getting late," he said as he tried to stand up, "we should probably start heading back, now."

"Yeah, sure. Whatever," Katsuki said as he followed Izuku's lead and stood up.

They both then proceeded to head back to camp as the sun's rays began to dim.

 **Back at camp…**

Once Izuku got back to camp, he was greeted by an excited Aang who was jumping around and talking about how he could earth bend and how Toph was good teacher and he even mentioned something about a 'sabbertooth moose lion', whatever that is.

A few hours passed and the sun had finally vanished from view, causing the rest of the sky to darken. The gang had finished their dinner and many of them were preparing to go to sleep.

As Toph had finished making her make-shift earthbending tent, she noticed that Shouto hadn't gone to sleep yet. He seemed to be sitting on the ground just looking up at the moon that washed the sky with a warm midnight glow. Toph remained silent and began to walk over to the white and red haired teen. "Hey," she said, causing Shouto to look back at her, "what the heck are you doing? Shouldn't you be getting ready to sleep or somethin'?"

"I suppose," Shouto said in response as his attention shifted back to the moon-lit sky, "it's just, the moon seems so much brighter in this world." Toph took in his words before replying, "I wouldn't know. Y'know….because of the whole blind thing." Shouto shifted uncomfortably in his spot. "Forgive me," he finally said, "I did not mean to offend you."

"Ehhh, it's no biggie," Toph said, waving her hand in dismissal of his comment. "However, I do feel sorry for you," Shouto said, his vision glued to the sky. Toph's eye slightly twitched in irritation, "I don't need your pity," she said as she promptly crossed her arms. "Look, just because I seem fragile and small doesn't mean i'm weak, ok. Trust me, I can take care of myself."

Shouto chuckled a little, "Of course, I never thought for a second that you were week. In fact, out of anyone in your group, I would probably trust you the most." Toph was surprised to hear Shouto say that ,and a small blush crept to her checks. "Really?" Toph asked, trying to be nonchalant.

"Yes, really. Still…..I envy you," Shouto said with a sigh, catching her off guard again.

"Why?" Toph asked.

"Simple. Because you're blind. Being blind means that you are unable to see the beauty in life through visual means; however, it also shields you from all of the wickedness and horrors of the world. I envy you, Toph…..because, unlike me, you are protected from the evils of humankind, AND you are able to see the beauty of life in your own way. The vividness of humans' sins are lost on you; that is also what makes you such a wonderful person."

Toph couldn't speak; her mouth was closed and her eyes were wide. 'Does he really think of me that way?' She thought inwardly. The two teens continued to stare at each other for a few minutes before Shouto finally decided to stand up.

"Well," he began, "I suppose it is time for me to prepare for sleep. See you in the morning."

With that, he walked off into his tent, leaving a very surprised Toph standing in the night.

"Yeah," Toph finally said as a warm smile spread across her face, "see you in the morning."

 **End of chapter 9**

 **Author's Note: Hey guys! Sorry I was a little late with this one. I had a major writter's block that lasted for like a week, but I'm back now and i'll hopefully be writing chapters more frequently. Please comment of the story and i'll talk to you guys later. Thanks and Peace! :)**


	10. Chapter 10: A vacation to the library

**Chapter 10: A vacation to the library**

The next morning, after everyone had had their sleep, the gang packed up and continued onward. Izuku didn't quite know how long it took, but he's pretty sure it was longer than a couple hours until they would reach a town. Somewhere along the way, Aang had stopped Appa to show the rest of the group something 'really cool', or at least that's what he said. The gang watched as Aang sat in front of a bunch of gopher holes and played a flute while some of the gophers would occasionally come up and harmonize with the music.

"Ummm, excuse me," Sokka finally said, after watching Aang play around with the gophers, "this is great and all, but shouldn't we be making plans?" "We did make plans," Toph interjected, "we're all picking mini vacations." Sokka turned to the young earthbender, "there's no time for vacations," he said sternly. Aang looked up at Sokka with a somewhat sad expression on his face, "I'm learning the elements as fast as I can," he said, " I practice hard every day with Toph and Katara. I've been training my arrow off."

Izuku quietly snickered at Aang's 'arrow' comment and proceeded to step forward, "Yeah, what's wrong with having a little fun in our down time?," he asked. Sokka then crossed his arms before he spoke, "Even if you mastered all of the elements; then what? It's not like we have a map of the fire nation. Should we just head west until we reach the fire lord's house? (Mocking voice) - 'knock, knock. hello? Fire lord, anyone home?' I don't think so! We need some intelligence if we're going to win this war."

Aang blew the flute one last time, causing a gopher to appear from a hole just between Sokka's legs as it let out a small squeak. Katara giggled at the gopher's sudden appearance before she approached Aang and Sokka, "Alright. We'll finish our vacations and then we'll look for Sokka's 'intelligence'. Once Katara emphasized the word 'intelligence', both Aang and Izuku began to laugh.

A few minutes later, after the gang had time to talk amongst themselves, Aang held up a map and showed it to Katara. "Your turn Katara!" Aang said, holding up the map, "where would you like to go for your mini vacation?" "Hmmmmmm," Katara hummed as she examined the paper, "how about the 'Misty Palms Oasis! That sounds refreshing!" "Oh, yeah," Aang said with a smile on his face, "I've been there. It's a pristine natural ice spring, and I usually don't use the word 'pristine'. It's one of nature's wonders.

 **Later, at the Misty Palms Oasis…**

The oasis didn't seem as refreshing as the map had showed it to be; in fact, it didn't even really look like an oasis. The entire area was surrounded by large wall that looked to be made entirely of sand and other minerals. The buildings also looked like they were made from sand, seeing as how the texture and color of them was almost identical to the sand on the ground. Furthermore, the oasis seemed to be located right-smack-dab in the middle of a large desert, surrounded by miles of hot and dry sand.

As the group approached the entrance, Aang nervously let out a laugh as he looked around, "Must've...changed ownership….since...I was….here." The group proceeded to walk in, trying their best to ignore the heat. As they walked, they passed by many of the man-made buildings, which looked more like huts. In the center of the entire area was a massive chunk of ice that sat within an indent of itself when it was larger. The ice had obviously melted away over time, and the gang watched as it slowly continued to evaporate.

The group of teens followed Aang and walked into a nearby sand hut, but before they entered, a man, who's head had been wrapped with cloth, spit in Katsuki's direction. The slob of saliva landed on the ground just in front of his shoes. The man then looked at Katsuki, allowing a wicked grin to cover his lips. Katsuki's eye suddenly twitched as a familiar feeling of rage enveloped his entire body. "Hey," Katsuki said, not yelling, but obviously trying to control himself, "I think you dropped something there, PAL." Katsuki practically spat the word 'pal', from his mouth in such a way that it caused the man to slightly flinch.

"If you want it back, I'll help you," Katsuki said as his hands began to shake, "I'll just politely pick up your spit for you and then i'll….SHOVE IT DOWN BACK INTO YOUR FUCKING THROAT, YOU TOILET-PAPER WEARING PIECE OF SHIT! I'LL KICK YOU SO FAR IN YOUR ASS THAT EVEN THE IDEA OF SITTING DOWN WILL-"

Katsuki was quickly silenced Shouto's hand over his mouth, causing his screams to become muffled. "Please try not to make a scene," Shouto said with a sigh as Katsuki finally removed Shouto's hand from his mouth. "SHOUTO, YOU-" "If you wish to continue to release your anger, I will not stop you; however, I must inform you that they're serving refreshing drinks in here." Katsuki froze at Shouto's words and looked to his fellow hero, "refreshing?...", he said as his mouth began to water. Shouto nodded in regards to Katsuki and pointed to a man behind a counter serving drinks.

"Well why didn't you say that in the first place?" Katsuki said as he practically sprinted inside, forgetting completely about the previous altercation. Shouto followed Katsuki's lead and returned back inside to see the rest of the gang talking to a very strange-looking man. He walked over to them and asked who the man was. "Of course, where are my manners," the man replied with a slight bow, " I am professor Zei, head of anthropology at Ba Sing Sei." Shouto nodded in understanding before responding, "Hmmmmm. Anthropology, the study of various aspects of humans within past and present societies. By my understanding, the continuous dedication to this science would most likely require you to consistently move to different locations. Correct?"

"That...is true, " Zei replied, not sure where the boy was going with this. "Would you, by any chance, happen to have a more up-to-date map? Ours seems to be somewhat outdated," Shouto said. "Of course!" Zei quickly replied, as he reached for a rolled up piece of paper from his pack. He spread out the paper onto a nearby table, revealing it to be a map. Sokka walked up to it and examined its contents before finally looking back up, "What? No fire nation?" Sokka moaned, disappointment evident in his voice, "doesn't anyone have a good map of that place?"

"You've made a lot of trips into the desert," Izuku stated after noticing a series of hand-drawn paths into the desert on the map. "All in vain, I'm afraid," Zei sighed as he looked at the group, "I've found lost civilizations all over the earth kingdom, but I haven't managed to find the crown jewel - Wan Shi Tong's library." Toph gave the professor an unbelieving stare, "You spent years walking around in the desert….to find some guy's library?"

"This library is more valuable than gold, little lady," Zei began, "It is said to contain a vast collection of knowledge, and knowledge...is priceless." Toph looked at the professor with a board expression, "mmmm. Sounds like good times," she said sarcastically.

For the next few minutes, Professer Zei explained more about Wan Shi Tong's library. He mentioned that the library was built by a knowledge spirit, known as Wan Shi Tong, and that the spirit used Fox-like assistants (that are ACTUAL foxes) to help him collect books from all over the world and put them on display for mankind to read. He then got out a sketched picture of the library that depicted a very large building with various decorations on the outside.

"If this place has books from all over the world, do you think they've got info on the fire nation? A map maybe?" Sokka said, after listening to what the professor had talked about. "I wouldn't know," Zei replied as he looked back down at the map, "but if such a thing exists, it's in Wan Shi Tong's library." Sokka was quiet for a moment and placed a finger on his chin. "Then it's settled," he finally said, turning to Aang, "Aang, I do believe it's my turn. I'd like to spend my vacation - AT THE LIBRARY!" Sokka said as he lifted his finger and pointed to the sky.

"Uhh, hey, what about us?" Toph said, gesturing to herself and the rest of the gang, "when to we get to pick?" "Yeah, what the hell, dude?" Katsuki said as he growled into his refreshing mango smoothie. Sokka lowered his eyes and crossed his arms in front of his chest, "You've gotta work here a little longer before you qualify for 'vacation time'." Toph and Katsuki both grumbled to themselves as they continued to drink their beverages.

"Of course there's still the matter of finding it, " Zei said, more to himself than anyone else, "I've made several trips into the sea-long desert and almost died each time. I'm afraid that desert is impossible to cross." Suddenly, as if on cue, everyone in the group began to look at each other and smile. "Professor," Sokka questioned, "Would you like to see our sky bison?" "A sky bison?!" Zei exclaimed with an excited tone, "You actually have one?"

The group then led Professor Zei back out into the blistering heat to show him their sky bison, Appa. However, once they got there, they saw that some of the men from before, who had their heads wrapped in cloth, were standing uncomfortably close to Appa. The bison let out a low growl and inched away from the group of men. Zei then ran up to the men and yelled, "Sand benders, Sho! Away from the bison!" The group of sand benders then began to back up and turned around to leave. The gang watched as the sand benders left on some strange looking vehicles as they vanished from sight.

 **A little while later...**

Once everyone had gotten on Appa, the crew then set out to look for Wan Shi Tong's library. The journey was long and hot, and, at some point in time, both Sokka and Katsuki had talked off their shirts to better deal with the heat. Katara, Aang, and Izuku were busy looking at the desert's surface for anything that might resemble a large building. Shouto and Zei were stuck in an intellectual conversation about ancient civilizations and cultures, while Toph was invested in picking her ears.

After the first 30 or 40 minutes, Toph made a statement. "Does this place even exist?" She said with a sigh, to which Zei replied with, "Some say that it doesn't." Toph's eyes then shot open at that, "Shouldn't you have mentioned that before," she said before she angrily collapsed back onto the ground (or saddle in this case).

About 20 minutes later, the group was starting to become more and more indifferent to the idea of finding the library. Katara sighed, "It shouldn't be this difficult to spot a tall ornate building in the air." "Wait, what's that?!" Sokka exclaimed as he stood up and pointed to something in the sand. Everyone looked and saw something sticking up from beneath the sand dunes. It seemed to be a tower, but, although it was quite tall, it still didn't look like it was anywhere near the size of the library. Despite this fact, the gang though it would be a good idea to go down and check it out anyway.

Once they landed, everyone got off of Appa and walked up to the massive tower, examining its height. It looked to be about 100 to 200 feet in height with an onion dome at the top accompanied with a decorated finial. "Forget it, " Katara said in a discouraged voice as she held up the drawing of the library, "It's obviously not what we're looking for. The picture in this drawing is enormous." Suddenly, out of the corner of their eyes, there was a slight shine that reflected off of something that was moving. The group turned to see a fox that was headed their way, holding something in its mouth.

The group continued to watch as the fox walked up to the tower and began to scale the structure, vertically walking up its side and entering into one of the windows at the top. "I think that was one of the knowledge seekers," Zei said happily, "We must be getting close to Wan Shi Tong's library." "No," Shouto said, pointing to the tower and then back to the drawing, "this IS the library. Look. It's completely buried."

Zei's ecstatic facial expression was soon replaced with that of immense horror. "The library is buried?!" He yelled as he fell to his knees, "My life's ambition is now full of sand." A few moments later, he looked back up with a smile and held a small shovel, "well, time to start excavating," he said as he began to take small scoops of the sand in front of him. "Actually, that won't be necessary, " Toph said after she firmly placed her hand by the base of the tower, "The inside seems pretty intact, and it's HUGE!"

"The fox went in through the window, " Izuku stated, looking up at the tower, "I suggest we go up there and take a look." Toph then crossed her arms and leaned back slightly, "I suggest you guys go on without me." "What? You afraid of libraries or somethin'?!" Katsuki mocked with a grin. Toph shot Katsuki a scowl before replying, "I've held books before, and, I gotta say, they don't exactly do it for me. Let me know if they've got something you can listen to."

"Whatever," Katsuki said as he threw a rope with a grapple hook on the end into the window. Once the rope was secure, the rest of the group began to slowly climb up the rope; all except for Shouto. "Hey, Shouto," Izuku asked, "aren't you coming?" To this, Shouto shook his head and replied, "No, I shall stay here to help Toph look after Appa." Izuku stared down at his comrade before continuing up the rope and entering into the window.

 **End of chapter 10**

 **Author's Note: I know that right now there doesn't appear to be any differences from how my story is going to how the original episodes went, but, believe me, I do plan on making several changes to the story. For example, I MAY add another character (one that is still a part of the avatar's universe) to the story earlier than they were suppose to be added. *cough* *cough*...Ty Lee. But anyway, I hope you guys liked this chapter; I will try to add another chapter as soon as possible. Until then Thanks and Peace! :)**


	11. Chapter 11: The darkest day

**_Chapter 11: The darkest day_**

The six explorers ventured down into the massive library, using the rope to carefully lower themselves deeper into the building. The scent of old dirt and stone entered Katsuki's nostrils, earning a cough from the blonde. "Remind me: why are doing this shit?" Katsuki grunted as he held his nose. "We need information," Sokka replied, "and this place might just have what we need."

Midoriya let his gaze wander around the building as he descended down the rope. The building was old, obviously, and there were layers of sand that lined the massive stone walls. It was quiet, except for a deep ominous sound that seemed to echo throughout the entire structure. Midoriya heard the professor eagerly talking as they neared the ground. He did his best to ignore it, but he did hear Zei mention something about a 'buttress'.

Once they all got off of the rope and onto the ground, the group looked around at where they were. They appeared to be on a bridge that connected two separate platforms on the same level. There were shelves nearby that seemed to be laced with a large assortment of books and scrolls. As they were taking in the scenery, they heard movement coming from across the bridge, as if someone was headed their way. The group decided to hide, and all ran behind some nearby pillars.

Once they hid, Midoriya peeked from behind his pillar to see a large black owl walk onto the bridge. The owl stopped directly in front of the rope that the group had used to get into the building. There was a short silence before the owl's head slowly turned, in a seemingly impossible way, to face the direction of the group. "I know you're back there," said the owl in a deep voice that echoed off the walls. Midoriya gasped and hid back behind the pillar, hoping that the owl was just bluffing.

Suddenly, professor Zei walked out from behind the pillars and began to walk toward the black beast. "Hello," he said as he got closer, "I'm professor Zei, head of anthropology at Ba Sing Sei University." The professor stopped in front of the owl and took a deep bow. "You should leave the way you came," suggested the owl, "unless you would like to become a stuffed head of anthropology." He gestured to a wall with heads of different animals hanging from it. Zei simply gulped while he rubbed his throat with his hand.

"Are you the spirit who brought this library to the physical world?" Sokka questioned as he and the other teens abandoned their hiding spots. "Indeed," the owl replied, "I am Wan shi tan; he who knows ten thousand things, and you are obviously humans." Midoriya slowly approached the owl and marveled at its massive size. The owl, as far as Midoriya could tell, towered over the group and looked to be at least 12 feet tall. "Holy shit," Katsuki practically sang, "That is a big ass bird."

"Why have you come here?" Wan shi tan asked in a low tone. "We're here for information," Midoriya stated, a little wary of the winged spirit, " we don't mean any harm." The black bird was silent for a moment before he spoke, "Through my many years of observing the human species, I have come to realize one thing: humans are very violent beings. More often than not, humans seek out knowledge in order to get the upper hand on other humans."

"But we're not like that!" Sokka quickly interjected. "Then I ask again: why are you here?" Wan shi tan slowly leaned forward, coming face to face with the teenage water tribe boy. "Ummm, knowledge for knowledge's sake," Sokka said as he nervously shrugged his shoulders. There was more silence as the bird eyed Sokka. "Hang on, we've got the avatar," Katsuki interrupted, pushing Aang forward, "he's suppose to be the 'bridge between our worlds', right?! His word must mean SOMETHING! He'll vouch for us!"

Aang, completely unprepared for Katsuki's shove, awkwardly stumbled in front of the owl who remained silent. "Uhhhh, yeah," Aang said, not really sure of what to say, "I give you my word that we will not misuse the knowledge in your library." The group slowly gave a bow to the owl. "Hmmmm. I suppose I could allow you to pursue my vast collection, under one condition," the owl said, "Before I let you examine my books, you must first contribute some worthwhile knowledge."

To this, the professor quickly walked up to the spirit and handed him a book that had a well-embroidered cover. Second, Katara gave the spirit one of her water bending scrolls, containing black illustrations on the paper. Next, Aang whipped out a poster that seemed to have a picture of him on it; probably a fire nation wanted poster. Katsuki and Midoriya jointly gave the spirit a "Hero in training handbook" that they forgot they even had. Finally, Sokka excitedly handed him a….knot, which the spirit still accepted.

After everyone had contributed something to Wan shi tan's collection, the spirit simply said, "enjoy the library," before flying off.

 ** _Meanwhile with Toph and Shouto…_**

The two teens sat quietly on the ground as grains of sand were gently being pushed along by the wind. Toph was sitting with her knees to her chest and positioned her head on her crossed arms. Shouto lay with his back on the sand, looking up at the blue sky. "So…," Toph began, breaking the silence, "how's training with Katara going?'' Shouto, not moving an inch, replied with, "Progress is slow, but I do believe that I am improving." Toph nodded, either out of sympathy or awkwardness, and let out a loud sigh. The two sat in silence for a few more minutes.

"You're blind, correct?" Shouto said, seemingly out of nowhere. "Ummm. Well, yes and no," Toph said, waiting a few seconds for Shouto's reply before she continued, "I don't SEE the way you do. I feel the vibrations in the ground with my feet." Shouto looked over at her this time as he steadily sat up. "But this sand is just so shifty," she said, grabbing a handful of sand before pouring back, "It makes everything look so fuzzy." This earned a grunt from Appa, causing Toph to defensively say, "Not that there's anything wrong with fuzzy."

 ** _Back with the rest of the group…_**

The teens had been searching the library for the past fifteen minutes, reading old books and examining outdated texts. "Uhhhhhggg," Katsuki groaned as he leaned on a nearby shelf, "Guys, I gotta tell ya - reading isn't really my thing. If you find some comic books or ancient manga then I'd be happy to help, but otherwise - WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE!?" Katsuki felt a hand on his shoulder, and he spun around to see Izuku with a finger to his lips. "Katsuki, can you please lower your voice," he said timidly, "we're in a library, y'know." Katsuki angrily whirled around to face Izuku and was about to yell in his face before Sokka's voice interrupted him.

"Hey, guys," Sokka said from around the corner, "check this out." The young water tribe boy motioned for the others to follow as he ran down the hallway. "What is it Sokka?" Katara asked. "I found a piece of paper that looked promising. It mentioned something about the 'darkest day in fire nation history'. It had a date at the top, but it didn't say anything else. I need to know what happened to the fire nation on their darkest day." Sokka turned a corner and continued to run. "The information on the fire nation should be right around here," he said as he neared a large stone entrance. "Here it is," he said. The group slowed their pace and walked into a room that seemed to have scorch marks that lined the walls and ground.

"Fire benders!" Aang exclaimed as he looked at the mounds of Burnt books and paper. "They must've destroyed everything that was related to the fire nation," Katara interjected as she gazed around the room. "OH. COME. ON!" Katsuki screamed, stomping his foot in the ash, "Are you freaking kidding me?! We were so close!" Sokka clenched his fist and fell to the ground, "Just when I thought I was one step ahead of them, it turns out that they beat use here a long time ago."

"I need to know what happened on the darkest day," Sokka said as he stared at the ground.

Suddenly, the group heard a sound from behind them. They turned and looked to see one of Wan shi tan's foxes standing a few yards from them. It stared back at them for a few moments before using its nose to point at something down the hallway. "It looks like he's trying to help us," Izuku said as he examined the animal. The group followed the animal as it led them through a series of corridors and finally into a large dome-like room. The ceiling was covered with stars that seemed to almost light up the room. There was a moon and sun at opposite ends of the room that was attached to some kind of contraption. In the middle of the room there was a control panel that was accompanied by a lever. The fox, with the group behind it, walked up to the panel and pushed the lever which seemed to activate something that began to move the stars, moon, and sun.

"This thing is a wonderfully brilliant device," the professor happily exclaimed as he watched the stars shift, "it's a planetarium that shows the heavens moving." "It's cool," Sokka said, still looking up at the stars, "but how is this suppose to help us out?" Katara looked closer at the panel that had a dial for inputting dates, "It looks like you can change the date on dial here," she said, "Sokka, use the date from that piece of paper you took-" Sokka immediately stopped Katara from finishing, "Shhhhhhh. Katara, not in front of the fox. He's with the owl," he whispered.

Sokka slowly peaked at the paper before adjusting the date on the dial. He then pulled the lever, allowing the moon, sun, and stars to move in tandem with each other. The movement then began to slow down, and the stars were still yet again. But something was different this time; the room looked darker. "What happened?" Katara asked. "Yeah, where's the sun?" Izuku questioned as he looked at the now still stars. "Great job, dude," Katsuki said sarcastically, "Ya broke the damn thing." "No," Sokka said as he looked in the direction of the moon, "The sun is BEHIND the moon; it's a solar eclipse. I get it now! It was literally the darkest day in fire nation history. Something big happened on that day, and I don't know what happened but I do know why - fire benders loose their bending during a solar eclipse."

"Wait, seriously?" Katsuki said as he crossed his arms across his chest. "Of course! It's just like what happens to water benders during a lunar eclipse," Katara said. "We need to get this information to the Earth King in Ba Sing Sei," Sokka noted as he rolled the piece of paper and put it in his pocket, "We'll wait for the next eclipse and then we'll invade the fire nation when they're totally helpless. The Fire Lord is going down!"

Suddenly, the ground got darker as a large shadow was cast upon the group of teens. The group turned around to see Wan Shi Tan looming over them. "Mortals are so predictable," the owl said in a low voice, "and such terrible liars."

Izuku slightly gulped at the sight of the giant creature. "I should have known," the black bird continued, "from the beginning, you have intended to misuse this knowledge for evil purposes. You are not the first to seek knowledge for your cause. Many before you have come to look for Weapons or weaknesses or battle strategies."

"We had no choice," Aang pleaded, "we're just trying to protect the people we love." "And now i'm going to protect what I love," the bird said as it flapped its massive wings, causing a surge of wind to smack the walls. There was a loud booming sound that echoed from off the walls. "What the hell is he doing?" Katsuki yelled as he looked up at cracks that began to form on the walls. "He's trying to sink the library!" Katara responded with worry in her voice. "We need to leave, now!" Sokka shouted.

"I'm afraid I can't allow that," the owl said as its head seemed to triple in length, "You already know too much."

With that being said, the massive bird lunged its beak at the group.

End of chapter 11

Note: I know, I know, I know. I have no excuse. I've honestly just started college, so it'll be more difficult for me to regularly post chapters. I'll still try to finish the chapters, but each one will probably take a long time. Anyway, I hope you like the story so far. Please comment. Thanks and Peace! :)


	12. Chapter 12: Escape

**Chapter 12: Escape**

The group had been in the library for what seemed like hours, and Toph and Shouto hadn't said a word apart from their last conversation. Toph took a deep breath in, letting her lungs fill with warm dry air, and sighed. She looked over at Shouto, who was still in the same place that he was before, and wondered what he was thinking about. Then Toph realized something; she had never actually tried to get to know Shouto. Sure, she would talk to him just like the others, but she had never tried to know him on a personal level. (Which makes sense since they haven't known each other for that long)

"Sooooo, what's your deal?" Toph blatantly asked.

"Hm? What do you mean?" Shouto said as he slightly turned his head to face the blind earth bender.

"Well, you came from another world, right?", she asked again in an inquisitive manner, "What was it like there?"

Shouto, obviously uninterested by the conversation, decided to keep his response as brief and unengaging as possible. "It was normal. Nothing too out of the ordinary."

"Ohhh, really?" Toph said in an interested tone. "Well, what about family? There must've been some people that you left behind."

Shouto didn't say a word. His eyes carefully scanned the blind girl's face, slowly examining each and every feature as his eyes slightly narrowed. His face remained calm, and yet there seemed to be conflicting thoughts that raged war in his head.

"I…..have no family." he finally said.

He lied. She could tell that he lied. Even though the ever shifting grains of sand continued to interfere with her ability, she was still close enough to the boy to sense his heart rate change. But she didn't want to press him any further, so she remained quiet.

"What about you, Toph?" the semi-red headed boy asked.

"What, you mean a family? Yeah, I had one, but I ended up having to leave them and join Aang's group. It's a long story." Toph said in a somewhat somber voice.

"I see," Shouto said as he slowly lifted his hand above his eyes to block out the sun's light, "do you ever miss them?"

Toph's response seemed delayed, almost as though she didn't expect him to ask such a question.

"Yeah," she finally grunted, "sometimes I find myself thinking about them, and I often wonder if leaving them was the best possible choice. Don't get me wrong, they were good parents - they loved me, fed me, and protected me - but a part of me always seemed to want a little more from them. I just…..wanted them to understand me too."

Shouto listen to Toph as she spoke, taking in every last word of what she said. His firm eyebrows began to soften as he looked into Toph's dull eyes. Two round eyes that seemed to hold back a personal story; a story of pain. Shouto's mouth slowly opened, hoping to offer her some words of council, but his efforts were quickly thwarted as the very ground beneath them started to tremble.

"Wh-what's happening?" yelled Toph as she stood up and faced the library tower.

"I don't know," replied Shouto, immediately sitting up, "but I don't think it's good."

The very sand they stood on continued to vibrate and shift, and the movement of the ground attempted to disrupt their balance. Standing firm, Toph looked up and noticed something that filled her with sudden dread.

"The library," she yelled, catching Shouto's attention, "It's sinking!"

Quickly and almost effortlessly, despite the ongoing shudder of land under them, Toph and Shouto raced toward the slowly descending mass of brick. The shape of the building was being engulfed by the ever awaiting soft pile of sand beneath it, pulling a ring of nearby sediment towards its center. Toph, in one complete movement of her body, slammed her two palms against the rough outer surface of the rock-like structure. Shouto followed the blind girl's lead and proceeded to generate a solid wave of ice that impacted the side of the building, effectively resisting its movement. However, the tower continued to plunge deeper into the golden brown sand despite the effort of the two teens.

 **Back with the rest of the group...**

The group ran down a long corridor that seemed to stretch for miles. The hard and slightly weathered stone floor would crack in a few places as the weight of six people passed over it. "Everyone, get to the rope!" Katara screamed, nervously peering behind her shoulder to get a glimpse of the quickly approaching giant owl behind them. "Wow, what a GREAT VACATION, GUYS!" Katsuki loudly exclaimed while still maintaining the sarcasm in his voice. The group suddenly turned a corner, swiftly followed by Wan Shi Tan's feathered body. Izuku looked up and saw the rope they used to enter dangling about 50 yards from their current position. "Just a little bit closer guys, we're almost there!" he said.

"Hold on a second," Sokka said, tapping Katsuki on the shoulder. "WHAT?!" the blonde teen replied, somewhat out of breath as he continued to run. "I need you to slow him down," Sokka said, gesturing to the rampaging black owl behind them. Katsuki, on the verge of replying in the best way he knew how, noticed the water tribe boy's face - it was serious. Sokka's eyebrows were lowered and he had a demanding look in his eyes; one that was deserving of trust and respect. Although he was loud and obnoxious most of the time, the blonde hero could tell when it was best to get serious. "Fine," Katsuki finally replied in an acknowledging tone. "Good. Aang, Izuku -" Sokka said as he addressed the two boys who slightly turned to look at him, "once Katsuki provides a distraction, I need you two to follow me. We're gonna find out when the next solar eclipse is."

"Katara, you have to take the Professor and leave," Sokka cautiously instructed, to which Katara nodded and continued forward. "Ready, guys?" Sokka asked, earning understanding nods from the rest of the group.

"GO!"

Almost immediately, Katsuki skidded to a halt and turned around to face the mammoth-sized bird that raced towards him. "Well then 'little guy'," Katsuki whispered as small sparks began to fly from his hand, "Let's dance." Suddenly, a massive explosion erupted from the teen's fists and quickly engulfed the large bird in a swirling vortex of fire and smoke. As the blazing lights of the flames slowly dimmed and clumps of debris floated down to the stone-like ground, Sokka, Aang, and Izuku hurried back down the narrow corridor.

"Good luck, Katsuki!" Izuku yelled as he continued to follow the group.

Katsuki watched the trio leave until they finally rounded a corner and were out of sight. He sighed and proceeded to turn his attention back to the large bird who began to slowly emerge from the thick veil of the smoke.

"I have retained a vast amount of knowledge within these walls," Wan Shi Tong uttered as he slowly approached Katsuki, "I know every single thing you can possibly imagine about this world - down to the most insignificant detail. And yet, your abilities astound me! I know of every technique in the art of fire-bending, but even that is not enough to explain your skills. That was not the attack of a fire bender. Who are you?"

"Are you done yet?" Katsuki said as he faked a yawn.

"Look, to be honest, I don't give a flying fuck about this shitty library, ok? I'm only here because we have a mission to complete. Now do you still wanna stand in my way, or am I gonna have to rip your wings off and shove 'em down your throat? It's your choice."

"Your arrogance irritates me," the large bird growled, "However, despite your ignorance, it has come to my attention that you are a being not of this world."

Katsuki remained silent; mainly because he was surprised it took Wan Shi Tong to assess his situation so quickly, but also because it felt like the bird knew something he didn't.

"You are here to help the avatar, aren't you?"

Katsuki took a step forward, "how did you know that?"

"...In time, I am sure you shall understand. But until then-" The large bird then spread out its wings and took off into the air, disappearing into the rising column of smoke after saying, "- finish your mission."

And then, the library was quiet. Katsuki stood in place as he continued to stare at the wall of smoke where the spirit had disappeared into. His mind was working to uncover what he had learned from the conversation, but it was not enough.

"Tch! Damn that bird, he barely told me anything!"

Katsuki punched a nearby bookcase in rage causing it to shatter into multiple pieces. He then sighed and stood up straight; his face took on a serious tone.

"How the hell did he know all that?" he said almost in a whisper.

"Katsuki!" someone suddenly yelled, interrupting his thoughts.

He looked behind him and saw Izuku along with Aang and Sokka rushing back to his location. They slowed down once they got close to him.

"Hey, did you losers get what you needed?" Katsuki said as he crossed his arms, pretending to not care.

Izuku smiled, "Y-yes, we were able t-"

"It was all thanks to me!" Sokka interrupted as he jabbed his thumb into his chest, "No need to thank me! It's all part of a good day's work."

"C'mon, you guys!" Aang yelled, a little sorry that he had to end such a nice conversation, "we have to get out of here soon; the library is sinking, remember?"

That being said, the group of four teens raced back to where they entered the building.

"Hey, where's Katara?" Izuku suddenly asked.

Just then, the group saw someone emerge from behind a set of bookcases in front of them; it was Katara.

"Katara!" Sokka yelled, relieved to see that she was alive, "I thought I told you to get out of here. Where's the professor?"

Katara followed the group to the exit, "He, uh, said that he would prefer to stay down here." she said, not entirely sure how to phrase it.

"Oh...Wait, what?!" Sokka exclaimed, as his jaw slid open.

"Forget him!" Katsuki yelled back, "The professor's a weird dude! Anway, i'm sure he's already made his decision!"

The group continued to head to the exit, as they made their way through the maze of library bookshelves.

End of chapter 12

Author's Note:...You know what? I have no excuse. I honestly cannot tell you guys why it took me sooooooooo long to get this chapter out there. I pretty much just forgot about it. (please don't hurt me). Well anyway, here's the next chapter. I hope you guys like it! You know the drill - enjoy, leave a comment if you liked it, and lower your expectations! That's it, i'm out. Later! :D


	13. Chapter 13: Sandbenders

**Chapter 13: Sandbenders**

"Hold on!" screamed Toph as she strained to keep the sinking building above ground.

A continued projection of ice was emanating from Shouto's palms and collided with the sides of the massive structure. Although the two teens were able to slow the descent of the building, it was still sinking into the sand.

"Damn!" cursed Shouto, "at this rate, the Library will be completely buried within the next 5 minutes!"

"Crap! What do we do?" Toph asked through clenched teeth.

"We have to keep this part of the building above ground level for as long as possible! I'm sure the others have already realized what's going on and are headed to the exit!" Shouto responded.

Just then, a loud roar filled the air and the two teens turned to see Appa being attacked by what looked like a group of people whose faces were covered by strips of cloth. Their clothes consisted of the same type of material; the arms and legs were wrapped with white linen-like layers around the forearms and ankles.

"Hey, what's going on?" Toph demanded, "Who the heck are those guys?"

"I don't know, but it doesn't seem like their actions are well-intentioned," Shouto said in a concerned tone.

A group of about five of the people from the group formed a small circle around Appa and tossed ropes over the confused sky bison. Each person on the opposite side grabbed ahold of the rope and pulled on it in an obvious effort to restrain the animal.

"What the- It looks like they're trying to capture Appa!" Shouto said, a hint of anger in his voice.

"Shouto, you have to stop them!" Toph yelled.

"But what about the library?" he said with concern.

"It's fine," Toph quickly replied, "I can at least hold it long enough for you to take them out. Now, GO!"

Shouto firmly nodded before he ran toward the group of masked assailants. One of them seemed to notice Shouto's approach and swung their hand in his direction; suddenly, a column of sand arose from the ground and sped toward the teenage hero.

Shouto lept to the side, narrowly dodging the attack. 'Sand?' he thought to himself, 'they can control sand? If that's the case, then they have a slight advantage over me. They have the advantage in numbers as well…..however'.

Just then, Shouto outstretched his hand and a giant wall of ice appeared, surrounding himself and the attackers. A few of them seemed startled and began to back away from the half red-haired teen.

"Now then," Shouto began as he calmly walked towards them, "i'm going to give you 30 seconds to tell me who you are and why you're here, or this is going to get messy."

"W-we don't have to tell you anything!" one of the members nervously yelled.

"Yeah," said another one, "besides, you can't take all of us on at once."

A small smile spread across Shouto's lips, "oh, really? Well then, would you like to test that theory?"

There was a momentary hesitation amongst the attackers before they all sent columns of sand towards Shouto in unison. Without lifting a finger, the teenage hero created a shield of ice that easily blocked each of their attacks.

"No way…." one of the assailants defeatedly muttered, "How is this possible? There's no way a waterbender could've done any of this! It's...it's impossible. WHO ARE YOU?!"

"15 seconds left," Shouto said, ignoring the question as he nonchalantly placed his hands into his pockets, "do you wish to continue?"

"F-fine, you win!" one of them quickly conceded, "...we'll tell you whatever you want."

Shouto crossed his arms over his chest, visually unimpressed, "well?"

A few of the masked men gave each other a couple of unsure glances before one of them stepped forwards, probably the leader.

"My name is Gashiun," he began, fear evident in his eyes, "w-we are a tribe of sandbenders who have survived in these lands for….generations, b-but some of the main ways for us to receive any sort of resources is t-to...umm….trade."

"I see," Shouto said, "let me guess, some of the things that you 'trade' are stolen items, correct? That's why you attempted to take the bison? You wanted to trade him."

Gashiun slowly nodded his head as he lowered his gaze to the sandy ground. Shouto silently stared at him; although they tried to take Appa, Shouto truly felt sorry for them. It seemed as if their entire lives revolved around pure survival; resorting to theft was probably just how life was for them.

"May I ask you a question?" Shouto asked out of nowhere.

"Ummm….yeah, I guess so," Gashiun said as he raised his head to face the teen.

"Would one of these resources that you trade for be water by any chance?"

Gashiun gave Shouto a confused look, but he answered the question anyway, "uhh, yes. Usually, our people tend to seek the most basic elements of survival like food, water, and shelter. H-however, since we primarily live in a desert, water is the most scarce."

Shouto nodded as he continued on, "I understand. Given your location, it must be difficult to find water. However, I have a proposition for you: if you are willing to do something for me, I will give you access to all the water you will need."

"How?" Gashiun replied in disbelief.

Shouto quickly gestured to the massive structure of ice that surrounded them, "Eventually this ice will melt, and when that happens you can take as much of the water that you want. I promise."

The young sandbender seemed to be thinking about the proposal before he looked back to his masked companions; the rest of them all nodded and he turned back to face Shouto.

"Deal. What do you want us to do?" Gashiun asked.

 **Meanwhile, with Toph…**

The blind earthbender had been straining to keep the library up for what seemed like hours; she felt her legs begin to give out and her palms were getting sore.

'Shouto, where the hell are you!' she thought as the library continued to sink into the soft sand, 'I can't keep this up for much longer!'

Suddenly, she heard footsteps headed in her direction, but there was something starnge about them - it sounded like they belonged to more than one person. Even though her earthbender vision was blurry, she could still detect that there were at least 5 to 6 of them.

"Stay back!" Toph yelled, still trying her hardest to keep the building from sinking, "If you get any closer, you'll regret it!"

Her threats were hollow and she knew it. There was no way she could fight back given her current predicament; there was nothing she could do.

Suddenly, Toph felt a hand on her shoulder.

"I said stay back!" Toph screamed again.

"Toph, calm down. It's me," said a familiar voice.

"Huh? Shouto?" Toph said in utter disbelief.

She let out a sigh of relief and slightly smiled. Then she realized that the other figures were standing right behind them, "Who are all of these other people?", she nervously asked.

"Don't worry," Shouto said with a smile, "they're here to help."

Almost as if on cue, the sandbenders all placed their palms on the ground, causing the sand to twist and harden. The sand that surrounded the library seemed to expand, and the massive building came to a complete stop.

Toph released her grip on the building's surface and fell to her knees in an exhausted heap.

"It's okay, Toph," Shouto said as he removed his hand from her shoulder and began to join the sandbenders, "besides, you've earned a break."

With that, Shouto shot out a few spikes of ice into the side of the library.

"We need to keep this up for as long as possible," Shouto informed the sandbenders; they nodded in understanding as they focused their power even more.

Suddenly, Shouto heard someone call him from above; he glanced up and saw Izuku, Katsuki, Sokka, Aang and Katara all emerge from the library's exit.

"Heh, finally," he muttered to himself with a grin.

The five teens all jumped down and landed unharmed onto the soft sand.

"Hey, where's the Professor?" Shouto asked with a concerned tone, realizing that the group was one man short.

"He decided to stay in the library," Sokka replied.

"What? But-"

"Shouto, don't worry," Izuku interrupted, "it's what he wanted."

Shouto looked the green-haired teen in the eyes before he gave a depressed sigh.

"Ok, guys. Let it go," Shouto said as he faced the sandbenders.

They all nodded and removed their palms from the ground, causing the sand to become loose and soft. The library continued its descent into the orange desert until the entire structure was engulfed by the surrounding sand. Then silence filled the air.

 **End of chapter 13**

Author's Note: Finally! Here you guys go! Are you happy now? Geez. This story has been one of (if not the most) popular stories that i've written so far. Most of the time that I dedicate to this story is figuring out where I want it to go and what i'll do with the characters. In the first few chapters, I spent a lot of time trying to keep this story as close to the original episodes of the Avatar that I could (even going as far as directly quoting some parts). This episode, however, was more of the story taking its own shape and starting to deviate from the original episodes. So, just to let you guys know, many of the following chapters may be somewhat different from the Avatar episodes - as in I may skip certain plot points or add in my own, but don't worry because this story as a whole will still be based upon the general plot of Avatar. Anyway, if you guys liked this chapter, please leave a comment (or even some suggestions if you want). And i'll try to finish the next episode soon. Thanks! :D


	14. Chapter 14: Heading for Ba Sing Se

**Chapter 14: Heading for Ba Sing Se**

About 15 minutes had passed since the group exited the library, and they had almost immediately began making preparations to leave. Aang, Izuku, and Sokka were busy packing all of their supplies back into the proper containers and placing them on Appa's back. Bakugo lazily sat in the large bison's shadow with his arms aggressively crossed in front of his chest and his eyes closed.

"Hey, Bakugo," Sokka yelled, drawing the attention of a pissed off Katsuki.

"...What?" the blonde hero muttered through clenched teeth.

"Do ya mind getting off of your ass and helping us pack?" Sokka retorted as he gestured to Aang and Izuku moving various bags and packages onto Appa.

It must've been too hot for Katsuki to argue because eventually sighed after a few moments of silence, "fine, but i'm not gonna carry any of the heavy stuff."

With that being said, Katsuki stood up and walked over to where Izuku and Aang were picking up some of the bags.

A few feet away, Shoto, Toph, and Katara were talking with the sandbenders.

"So, you were just looking for something to trade with?" Katara questioned. Although she didn't agree with the sandbender's attempts to take Appa, she understood why they would try to do so.

"Yes," Gashiun said with a regretful nod, "It wasn't anything personal, but it's very rare to find anyone out here who isn't a part of a tribe. Also, we thought that a flying bison would be a good piece for trade. We're sorry about all this."

"Don't worry, it's ok," Shoto suddenly began, "We understand that it was out of necessity; also, you were able to help us in our time of need. Thank you."

Shoto stuck out his hand to the sandbender in gratefulness.

"Oh, no, it's fine!" Gashiun said, "Anyway, it's you whom we should thank. You provided us with enough water to last us for the next several months. We are very grateful."

He then stuck out his arm and firmly grabbed Shoto's hand; the two shared a friendly hand shake as genuine smiles spread across both of their faces. Once they released themselves from the other's grip, the two groups exchanged goodbyes and left.

As the three were walking back to meet up with their remaining members, Toph walked up to Shoto with a question on her mind.

"Hey, Ice Tea," She began in a partial whisper, "How did you know that they would take your deal? I mean how did you know that they wouldn't just try to kill you and take Appa?"

Shoto seemed to think about his answer for a few seconds before he responded, "Survival."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Toph said, obviously confused.

"They had to weigh their options. If they continued to fight, they would have to risk the possibility of getting injured or worse; furthermore, they would have to ask themselves whether taking Appa would be worth the risk. I simply offered them an alternative where they wouldn't have to get hurt but would still receive something of value," Shoto said with an even face.

"Huh...wow," replied a dumbstruck Toph, "You really thought through all of that? Nice going, Ice Tea!"

She playfully punched Shoto in the shoulder causing Katara to slightly giggle. They walked up to the rest of the group just as Izuku and Aang were packing the final bags onto Appa.

"You guys ready to go?" Sokka asked in a joyous tone.

"Yep! Umm….wait, where are we going?" Izuku questioned sheepishly.

"Ba Sing Se!" Sokka bellowed.

"Ba Sing Se? What the hell is that?" Katsuki grumbled irritably as he climbed onto the bison's saddle.

"It's the capital of the Earth Kingdom," Sokka clarified, "it's basically one of the most prosperous cities in any of the four nations. We need to give them the information that we uncovered here, so that we can finally defeat the fire nation. Hopefully, this information is enough to convince the city's leaders."

The rest of the members each individually climbed onto Appa as Sokka continued to explain the importance of Ba Sing Se. Aang grabbed ahold of the reins and Appa immediately floated off of the ground and took off into the sky.

Even though the sun was beginning to disappear over the horizon, the air still held onto the lingering desert heat. The color of the sky morphed from orange to blue as the group continued on their trip to Ba Sing Se.

Toph, Katara, and Shoto had fallen asleep and Katsuki looked as if he would soon succumb to the allure of rest as well. Sokka sat cross-legged as he intensely studied some of the crumpled texts that the gang had retrieved from the library; his gaze remained focused on the old articles of paper as he sifted through some of their content.

Izuku scooted closer to Sokka so that he could get a better look at the papers.

"What exactly do they say?" the green-haired hero asked, gesturing to some of the scrolls and aged parchment.

"Well, some of them are difficult to read due to aging, but others seem to vary in terms of information," Sokka answered without looking up from his reading.

"Like this one," Sokka said as he carefully straightened out a sheet of paper that had been rolled up.

He handed the paper to Izuku who gently grabbed it and examined the partially faded letters. Sokka was right, the text was quite difficult to read. Some of the letters had been smudged or were hidden behind ancient stains; the paper itself was gritty in texture, sort of like sandpaper, and the edges were either torn completely off or were creased.

Izuku squinted and tried to read what words were still legible, "Solar…eclipses…..cause….firebenders to lose…their…..abilities…for a…..limited…..period of time."

Izuku reread the text again just to be sure he read it correctly. "This is exactly what you guys said in the library, right? Katara even said that a Lunar eclipse does something similar to waterbenders. Why do these natural events have such an impact on benders?"

"Well, I don't know," Sokka said, finally looking up from the scrolls, "I'm not sure if anybody really knows. We don't have enough information on the connections between benders and things like eclipses."

"Oh, I see," Izuku simply said as he stared back down at the paper.

Several hours eventually passed, and the group had long since passed through the desert. Now, vast fields of green grass and trees covered the ground below as many members of the gang had woken up.

"Ugggghhh, how much longer 'till we get there?" Kasuki groaned.

"Not that much longer," Aang said as he turned to face Bakugo with a smile on his face, "we'll be there pretty soon."

"Great, finally. I just wanna know what the ground feels like again," Kasuki retorted.

Toph stretched her arms and yawned as she awoke from her slumber, "yeah, also what do we do once we get there?"

"I'm glad you asked!" Sokka quickly replied with a grin, "we need to first request an audience with the Earth King, and then convince him to go along with our plan, Simple!"

There was a brief silence as everyone glared at Sokka; even Izuku gave him a disapproving look.

"Ok I admit, the plan needs a little work, but i'm confident in our abilities,team!" Sokka bellowed with a sparkle in his eyes.

Another awkward silence filled the air.

"You're an idiot," Kasuki said with his head resting in his hands.

"Fine, you got a better idea, genius?" Sokka mocked sarcastically.

"Hmph! Fine," Katsuki said as he confidently stood up, "WE TELL HIM TO GIVE US ACCESS TO HIS MILITARY, AND IF HE RESISTS THEN WE SAY THAT WE'LL BEAT HIM UP!"

There was a third period of silence before Toph let out a snicker and Sokka just erupted into a fit of laughter. Katsuki angrily stood still as he glared at the giggling water tribe boy.

"What's so funny?" Katsuki growled.

"YOU!" Sokka answered with a finger pointed at Bakugo before he continued on with his incessant cackling.

Before Katsuki could get his hands on the boomerang-wielding teen, his actions were interrupted by Aang yelling back to the rest of the group.

"Guys, we're here," he said, "We made it to Ba Sing Se, but…"

His voice trailed off until he was fully silent.

"But? But what? Aang, what is it?" Katara said with worry in her voice.

The gang looked off into the distance to see a massive wall that seemed to span several miles across; it looped around itself to form a large circle that contained a city within it. The internal structure of the city was detailed and intricate with various streets, buildings, and patches of greenery.

The gang's vision was then drawn to a single moving object just outside of Ba Sing Se's borders. As they got closer, they could see that the object was a vehicle; a very sizeable, yet thin, moving contraption that appeared to be nearing the outer wall of the city.

The vehicle was long and cylindrical with thick plates that covered the surfaces; the front portion of the machine was rotating and was detailed with indented edges that curved around it.

"Is that a drill?" Izuku questioned, alarm was evident in his voice.

"I think so," Sokka confirmed, "the fire nation must be trying to break through the wall. Look!"

He pointed to the symbol that graced the side of the vehicle - it was the fire nation insignia.

 **End of Chapter 14**

Author's Note: Bow down to me mortals, for I have graced you with a new chapter!...I know, I know, it's not really that impressive, but this chapter is where I started to add my own unique touch to the Avatar's plot. The majority of this chapter was mostly devoted to expanding upon the connections between these characters. Although it was not all of the characters, I think it's a pretty good start. Don't worry though, the next chapter will be much better. Hopefully, there will be much more action, and Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai will be introduced. Please comment if you liked the chapter! Thanks! :)


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